

FROM THE PORTRAIT BELONGING TO TRINITY COLLEGE, HARTFORD, 
COPIED FROM THE ORIGINAL BY HUDSON, » 

IN THE POSSESSION OF ^ 

REV. JOHN BUTLER, 

KIRBY HOUSE, INKPEN, BERKS, ENGLAND. 



BISHOP BUTLER 



A RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHER FOR ALL TIME 



A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE 
WITH AN EXAMINATION OF THE 
" ANALOGY " 



THOMAS RUGGLES PYNCHON, D. D. LL. D. 



" Who with a soul inflamed by love divine, 
His life in presence of his God consumed, 
Like the bright lamps, before the holy shrine. 

His aspect pleasing, mind with learning fraught, 
His eloquence was like a chain of gold. 
That the wild passions of mankind controlled." 



Lines on Bishop Butler^ London Magazine^'' May, 1754. 



D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
1889 



NEW YORK 





Thb LmtART 

OP COMGUM 



Copyright, 1889, 
By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 



In illemoriam 
GUILIELMI WHEWELL, S. T. D. 

PER ANNOS XXV, COLLEGII SACRO-SANCT^ 
TRINITATIS MAGISTRI, 
ET PER ANNOS XVII IN UNIVERSITATE CANTABRIGIENSI 
PHILOSOPHIC MORALIS PROFESSORIS, 
BISQUE VICE-CANCELLARII. 

FORTIS, ANIMOSUS, HONESTUS, " PIUS, SIMPLEX, 
CANDIDUS, LIBERALIS," VIRTUTIS STUDIOSUS, 
OMNI doctrinA ATQUE OPTIMARUM ARTIUM 
STUDIIS ERUDITUS, BENE VITAM SUAM GESSIT. 

NATUS MAI XXIV MDCCXCVI, OBIIT MAR. VI. MDCCCLXVI. 



f 



PREFACE. 



The two great works of Bishop Butler, his " Fifteen 
Sermons " on moral subjects and the " Analogy," like 
the important works of other men of great intellectual 
superiority and profound thought, can not be correctly 
appreciated, or, indeed, truly comprehended, unless 
they are looked at and approached from the right point 
of view. 

For the purpose of rendering some assistance in 
gaining the proper point of view, as it seems to the 
author, this examination of the " Analogy " has been 
written. In order to arrive at this end, regard must be 
paid to the history of the period in which the author 
lived ; not in its theological aspect exclusively, but in 
reference to all its important characteristics. 

An attempt has therefore been rpade to show the 
position that the " Analogy " holds, in reference to the 
scientific as well as to the theological opinions of the 
age in which it was written. Bishop Butler's career 
was overlapped by that of Sir Isaac Newton. He be- 
longed to the generation that immediately followed that 
of Newton. At the time of Newton's death, in 1727, 
Butler was thirty-five years of age, and for nine years 



6 



PREFACE. 



they had resided in the same city. Like other thought- 
ful Englishmen of that period, he was profoundly im- 
pressed by Newton's discoveries, as wrought out in the 
'* Principia." An attempt has been made to trace this 
influence, and to show that there is underlying the en- 
tire course of thought in the " Analogy " a profound in- 
ductive argument, going to prove that the visible and 
invisible world form but one scheme of Providence, and 
are governed by the same laws. It has been well said 
that Bishop Butler was a philosopher, who discussed 
religious subjects in a scientific spirit and upon scien- 
tific principles. This ought to give him great influence 
in an age as thoroughly devoted as is the present age 
to scientific research. 

An attempt has also been made to show that, while 
one of Butler's strong points is his demonstration of the 
moral government of God, he took equal pains to prove 
that compassion is a principle so thoroughly inwrought 
into the constitution and course of Nature, that we may 
feel certain it is one of the leading principles of the 
government of God ; and may be fully justified in pre- 
dicting that any revelation coming from the God of 
Nature must manifest compassion* as one of its lead- 
ing characteristics. 

It may also with truth be said that one end of the 
present treatise has necessarily been to show the im- 
mense extension imparted by Bishop Butler's reasoning 
to the meaning of the term " natural," and the corre- 



* "Analogy," Part II, chap, v, sec. iii, also sec. v. 



PREFACE. 



7 



Spending limitation of the term " supernatural," in illus- 
tration of the passage in which he says* that ''persons* 
notions of what is natural will be enlarged in propor- 
tion to their greater knowledge of the works of God 
and the dispensations of his providence. Nor is there 
any absurdity in supposing that there may be beings in 
the universe whose capacities and knowledge and views 
may be so extensive as that the whole Christian dispen- 
sation may to them appear natural — i. e., analogous or 
conformable to God's dealings with other parts of his 
creation ; as natural as the visible known course of 
things appears to us." These are the main points of the 
present disquisition. 

A somewhat prolonged experience in the difficult 
task of unfolding the meaning of Bishop Butler's great 
works to the comprehension of young men, has only 
deepened the profound respect and thorough admira- 
tion which the author has always entertained for his 
great name and lofty genius ; and this is the only justi- 
fication he can offer for his present effort to impress the 
same respect and admiration outside of the sphere of 
his own immediate personal influence. It must be care- 
fully remembered, however, that this attempt is merely 
intended to place before the reader the evidence of the 
views entertained, leaving it for him to decide upon the 
evidence, and to come to a conclusion accordingly. 

Trinity College, September, i88g. 



* ** Analogy," Part I, chap, i (near the end). 



JOSEPH BUTLER, D. C. L. 

SOMETIME 
LORD BISHOP OF DURHAM. 

A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE, WITH AN EXAMINATION OF 
THE "ANALOGY." 



BISHOP BUTLER 



The studies of the last year of a college course 
constitute the most important part of a liberal educa- 
The final studies of a tion, and differ from those of the 



the investigation of the nature of man considered as 
an intellectual, moral, and religious being ; and are pur- 
sued with the special purpose of enabling the stu- 
dents to acquire a thorough knowledge of themselves, 
and of that common constitution which they all pos- 
sess as members of the human family. 

The attention of the student is directed in the first 
place to psychology, or the science of the human soul 
— a most important study, and essential to the thorough 
understanding of man's spiritual constitution. Then in 
the next place consideration is given to the analysis of 
man's mental constitution, and to the faculties that he 
possesses for gaining knowledge and investigating 



liberal education are de- 
voted to the investigation 
of the nature of man, 
as an intellectual, moral, 
and religious being. 



preceding years, of which they 
form the true end and culmina- 
tion, largely in this respect, that 
they are chiefly concerned with 



12 



BISHOP BUTLER, 



truth. In this connection logic enters largely into the 
curriculum — a study whose object is to teach us how- 
to reason and to draw correct inferences, and to fur- 
nish us with rules for performing the process accu- 
rately. We can not prosecute these studies to any 
great extent without perceiving that our knowledge 
of man's intellectual nature has been very much en- 
larged, and that we possess many important and curi- 
ous faculties, of whose existence we had previously 
been ignorant. 

In like manner, political economy is really a study 
in human nature, and is concerned with the investiga- 
tion of the constitution of man considered as the only 
intelligent being living on the earth having the capacity 
for making exchanges, for trading, and accumulating 
wealth. As this capacity and disposition are found in 
every human being, in all ages and places, it is justly 
regarded as one of the most marked peculiarities of 
man's nature. 

Political philosophy is also a study of man's nature, 
considered as a political animal, or one intended to live 
in communities and consequently requiring government 
and laws for the regulation of his acts as a member of a 
state. 

From these studies the transition is easy to that of 
the nature of man, considered as a religious and moral 
being. By the term religious being is meant one that 
is capable of forming an idea of God, as the Creator 
and the moral governor of the universe, and also a con- 
ception of the relations which man sustains to him. By 



LIFE, 



the term moral being is meant one who is capable of 
recognizing the moral quality of actions, and of perceiv- 
ing the authority that conscience rightfully possesses 
over him. 

It is to this last study, viz., the religious and moral 
nature of man, that at the present time we propose 



of Religion, Natural and Revealed, to the Constitution 
and Course of Nature"; and for the study of man's 
moral nature, the " Dissertation on Virtue " and The 
Fifteen Sermons, Preached before the Lawyers in the 
Rolls Chapel, London," by the same great religious 
philosopher. 

The first of these works, the "Analogy," has a world- 
wide reputation, which every day is constantly increas- 
ing. In the second, viz., the " Sermons," the founda- 
tion was first laid for a correct theory of morals — to 
such a degree that Sir James Mackintosh speaks of 
the doctrines therein laid down as being worthy of 
the name of discoveries. 

The authorship of these works has placed Bishop 
Butler upon the highest pinnacle of fame, and his name 
is justly enrolled among the greatest philosophers the 
world has ever seen, and he is always to be classed with 
Shakespeare, Lord Bacon, Sir Isaac Newton, Cuvier, 
and other distinguished men of extraordinary genius, 



Why Bishop Butler is 
taken as a guide. 



The religious nature of 
man, the subject of the 
present investigation. 



specially to turn our attention, 
beginning with his religious na- 
ture, and in pursuing it to take 
for our guide the celebrated work 
of Bishop Butler, the " Analogy 



14 BISHOP BUTLER. 

who are generally recognized as standing intellectually 
at the head of the human race. 

Like many other great men, Bishop Butler sprang 
from a comparatively humble origin. His father was 
Sketch of Bishop But. Thomas Butler, a substantial wool- 
ler's life and education.— en and linen draper, who had re- 
Born May i8, 1692. tired from business with a moder- 
ate property, but sufficient to enable him to give his son 
a university education, and provide him with every ad- 
vantage. The bishop was the youngest of eight chil- 
dren, and was born the i8th of May, 1692, at Wantage, 
in Berkshire, about sixty miles west of London, not far 
from the road to Bristol. The house in which he first 
saw the light, called the Priory, held by a lease from 
the dean and canons of Windsor, is still standing, and 
even the room in which the bishop was born may yet 
be seen. Berkshire is named the royal county, on ac- 
count of its containing Windsor within its precincts. 
Wantage is also celebrated as the birthplace of Alfred 
the Great, and the site of his palace is shown. Butler, 
therefore, was born not in an obscure part of England, 
but near the residence of royalty, in the same county 
with Runnymede and Magna Charta Island, and not far 
distant from one of its most celebrated schools of learn- 
ing — Eton. His early education was carried on in the 
grammar-school of his native place. One of the pecul- 
iarities of Wantage was that it had two churches in one 
church-yard. Of these, the smaller, was for several 
hundred years used as a grammar or Latin school, but 
in Butler's time this had been replaced by an Eliza- 



LIFE. 



15 



bethan building-, and it was in this building that the 
early training of the bishop was commenced, under the 
Rev. Philip Barton, a clergyman of the Church of Eng- 
land. His father, who was a stanch Presbyterian, per- 
ceiving that his son had a strong mind and a great apti- 
tude for the acquisition of knowledge, determined to 
educate him for the Presbyterian ministry, and sent him 
to an academy at Tewkesbury in the neighborhood of 
Gloucester, kept by Mr. Jones, a person of great learn- 
ing and ability. Here he prosecuted his studies for the 
Presbyterian ministry with distinguished success, and it 
was during this period that he wrote his celebrated 
letters to Dr. Samuel Clarke, the author of the noted 
" Boyle Lectures " for 1704, upon the " Being and Attri- 
butes of God," in which he dissented from two of the 
positions taken by that author. The date of the first of 
these letters was November 4, 171 3. They were signed 
" A Gentleman of Gloucestershire," and the correspond- 
ence was carried on through Seeker, a schoolmate of 
the bishop, afterward the well-known Archbishop of 
Canterbury, who, to preserve the secret of the author- 
ship, took Butler's letters to the post at Gloucester, and 
brought back Dr. Clarke's replies. These letters, with 
Dr. Clarke's answers, are printed at the end of many of 
the editions of Butler's works; and, if we take into con- 
sideration that the author was at this time only twenty- 
one years of age, they must certainly be regarded as 
wonderful performances. 

Here he remained until he was twenty-two years of 
age. About this time he became dissatisfied with the 



i6 



BISHOP BUTLER. 



views of the Presbyterians, and desirous of attaching 
himself to the Church of England, and after some un- 
successful attempts on the part of his father to change 
his purpose, he was finally entered as a commoner at 
Oriel College, Oxford, March 17, 17 14, where his educa- 
tion was completed. 

In due time he proceeded to holy orders, having 
been ordained deacon by Bishop Talbot at Salisbury, 



of December in the same year. At Oriel College he had 
made the acquaintance of Mr. Edward Talbot, the sec- 
ond son of the Bishop Talbot by whom he was ordained, 
and who was soon after translated from the see of Salis- 
bury to that of Durham, and in this manner an intimacy 
was established with the Talbot family, which secured 
him many important favors, and did much to promote 
his rapid advancement. In the very year of his ordi- 
nation, when he was only twenty-six years of age, and 
before he had acquired any public reputation, upon 
the recommendation of Bishop Talbot and Dr. Samuel 
Clarke, then Rector of St. James, Piccadilly, he was 
appointed to the very important position of preacher 
at the Rolls Court, London, a chapel frequented by 
lawyers, and it was during this period, from 171 8 to 
1726, that he wrote the fifteen famous sermons to 
which reference has already been made. In the mean 
time he was presented by Bishop Talbot, who had 
then become Bishop of Durham, to the living of Haugh- 



Ordination and appoint- 
ment to the Rolls Chapel. 



October 26, 171 8, and priest by the 
same prelate in the parish church 
of St. James, Westford, on the 21st 



LIFE. 



17 



ton in that diocese, and in 1725 to the living of Stan- 
hope, also in the diocese of Durham, and one of the 
most valuable livings in England. 

In 1726 he resigned his place as preacher at the 
Rolls, and on resigning published his Fifteen Ser- 



Jekyll, as a public mark of gratitude for the favors 
received during his connection with that society. Re- 
tiring immediately from the excitements of London 
to the quiet tranquillity of Stanhope, he lived in com- 
plete seclusion for seven years in the conscientious 
discharge of every obligation belonging to a good 
parish priest, and here it was that he wrote his cele- 
brated treatise, the ''Analogy." Through the influ- 
ence of his friend Seeker, he was in 1733 selected by 
Lord Chancellor Talbot, the eldest son of Bishop Tal- 
bot, to be his chaplain, and, on passing through Ox- 
ford in order to enter upon the duties of this ap- 
pointment, on December 8th of the same year, he was 
admitted to the degree of D. C. L. In 1736 the Lord 
Chancellor Talbot made him a prebendary in the 
Cathedral of Rochester, and consented that he should 
reside in his parish at Stanhope during half the year. 



scribed to the same distinguished 
benefactor, its author being then forty-four years of age. 
Four editions were published during his lifetime: the 



Publication of the Ser- 
mons, in 1726. 



mons," preached in the chapel of 
that Court, and dedicated the vol- 
ume to the Master, Sir Joseph 



Publication of the "Anal- 
ogy " in 1736. 



In this same year, 1736, the 
Analogy " was published, and in- 



2 



i8 



BISHOP BUTLER, 



first in quarto ; the second, shortly after the first, in 
octavo ; the third and fourth also in octavo.* It has 
been stated that this immortal work embodies the re- 
sults of twenty years hard thinking. A copy of the 
" Analogy " was presented to the Queen at an early 
day, and soon after, and probably in consequence of 
its publication, the author was appointed her private 
chaplain, and required to attend upon her daily for de- 
votional exercises and for the discussion of theological 
subjects, from seven to nine in the evening. The first 
and last of Bishop Butler's memoranda of this period 
record his administration of the holy communion to 
the Queen in private, soon after his entering upon the 
duties of his office, and again in October, 1737, a few 
weeks only before her death, which took place on the 
20th of November in that year. This was Queen Caro- 
line, the wife of George II, a woman of excellent natural 
abilities and a very religious person. The " Analogy " 
was her favorite study. Her death took place in the 
next year after its publication, and she left the promo- 
tion of the interests of its author as a special charge to 
her husband ; and Lord Hervey in his memoirs says, 
speaking of her last moments, that " she desired the 
Archbishop of Canterbury (Potter) to take care of her 
chaplain, Dr. Butler, and he was the only person I ever 
heard of her recommending, particularly by name, all 
the while she Avas ill." 

In the year following the death of the Queen, Dr. 



* A copy of the second edition, an elegantly printed octavo, published in 
1736, is in the possession of the writer. 



LIFE. 



19 



Butler was nominated by the King to the bishopric of 
Bristol, and he was consecrated December 3, 1738. As 
the income of this see was only 

Consecrated Bishop of 

Bristol, December 3, four hundred pounds per annum, 
1738 ; appointed Bishop ^nd it was hardly practicable for 

of Durham in 1750. , . , . i . . 

him at the same time to adminis- 
ter the parish of Stanhope, he was presented in 1740 
to the deanery of St. Paul's Cathedral, London. This 
was one of the richest deaneries in England, and he 
was thus enabled to resign the parish of Stanhope, 
and also the prebend at Rochester. He held the dean- 
ery of St. Paul's as long as he continued at Bristol. 
In 1747 he is said to have declined the archbishopric 
of Canterbury. In 1750 he was made Bishop of Dur- 
ham, in succession to his old friend Bishop Talbot. 
This bishopric is one of the richest and most impor- 
tant in England, and has been held by some of the 
most distinguished bishops that have ever adorned the 
bench. Butler, however, was not destined long to en- 
joy its emoluments or its honors. Almost immediately 
after his appointment his health began to fail, and in 
about two years he died at Bath, whither he had gone 

for the purpose of drinkins: the 

Death June i6, 1752. . 

waters, on the morning of Tues- 
day, June 16, 1752, in the sixtieth year of his age, and 
was buried in the cathedral at Bristol on the even- 
ing of the following Saturday, June 20th. Over his 
grave a marble slab was placed, with the following 
Latin inscription, written by his chaplain. Dr. Forster. 



20 



BISHOP BUTLER. 



H. S. 

REVERENDUS ADMODUM IN CHRISTO PATER 
JOSEPHUS BUTLER, LL.D. 
HUJUSCE PRIMO DICECESEOS 
DEINDE DUNELMENSIS EPISCOPUS. 

QUALIS QUANTUSQUE, VIR ERAT 
SUA LIBENTISSIMO AGNOVIT ETAS ; 
ET SI QUID PR/ESULI AUT SCRIPTORI AD FAMAM VALENT 
MENS ALTISSIMA, INGENII PERSPICACIS ET SUBACTI VIS 
ANIMUSQUE PIUS SIMPLEX CANDIDUS LIBERALIS 
MORTUI HAUD FACILE EVANESCET MEMORIA. 
OBIIT BATHONI^ 
XVI KAL. JUL. A. D. 1752, 
ANNOS NATUS 60. 

With reference to this memorial the following lines 
were published in the London Magazine " for May, 
1754, and in the supplement to the Biographical Dic- 
tionary " in 1767 : 

" Beneath this marble Butler lies entombed, 
Who with a soul inflamed by love divine, 

His life in presence of his God consumed. 
Like the bright lamps before the holy shrine. 

His aspect pleasing, mind with learning fraught. 
His eloquence was like a chain of gold, 
That the wild passions of mankind controlled. 

Merit wherever to be found he sought. 
Desire of transient riches he had none ; 

These he with bounteous hand did well dispense. 

Bent to fulfill the ends of Providence, 

His heart still fixed on an immortal crown. 

His heart a mirror was of purest kind. 

Where the bright image of his Maker shined. 
Reflecting faithful to the throne above 
The irradiant glories of the mystic Dove." 

In 1834 a noble monument was erected over his re- 
mains in Bristol Cathedral by subscription, chiefly con- 



LIFE, 



21 



tributed by the gentlemen of the neighborhood, assisted 
by the Bishops of Bristol and Salisbury, and by Dr. 
Hawkins, the Provost of Oriel College, Butler's col- 
lege at Oxford, and an inscription written for it by 
r ' r -D- 1, Robert Southey, the poet laureate, 

Inscription upon Bish- y ' r ' 

op Butler's monument, himsclf a native of Bristol, as follows : 

by Robert Southey. 

SACRED 

TO THE MEMORY OF JOSEPH BUTLER, D. C. L., 
TWELVE YEARS BISHOP OF THIS DIOCESE 
AND AFTERWARDS BISHOP OF DURHAM, 
WHOSE MORTAL PART IS DEPOSITED 
IN THE CHOIR OF THIS CATHEDRAL. 
OTHERS HAD ESTABLISHED 
THE HISTORICAL AND PROPHETICAL GROUNDS 
OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, AND 
THAT SURE TESTIMONY OF ITS TRUTH 
WHICH IS FOUND IN ITS PERFECT ADAPTATION 
TO THE HEART OF MAN. 
IT WAS RESERVED FOR HIM TO DEVELOP 
ITS ANALOGY TO THE CONSTITUTION 
AND COURSE OF NATURE, 
AND LAYING HIS STRONG FOUNDATIONS 
IN THE DEPTH OF THAT GREAT ARGUMENT, 
THERE TO CONSTRUCT 
ANOTHER AND IRREFRAGABLE PROOF : 
THUS RENDERING PHILOSOPHY 
SUBSERVIENT TO FAITH: 
AND FINDING IN OUTWARD AND VISIBLE THINGS 
THE TYPE AND EVIDENCE 
OF THOSE WITHIN THE VEIL. 
BORN A. D. 1692, DIED 1 752. 

" He who beheves the Scriptures 
To have proceeded from Him who is the 
Author of nature, may well expect 
To find the same sort of difficulties 

In it as are found in the constitution of nature." 

Origen, " Philocalis," p. 23. 



22 



BISHOP BUTLER. 



It is interesting to us as American Churchmen to 
know that the bishop deeply sympathized with the suf- 
ferings, trials, and manifold disa- 

His interest in the Amer- ■, -t.- ^ u c 

, . , . , bilities that the members of the 

lean colonial episcopate. 

Church of England in this country 
endured before the Revolution. He appreciated espe- 
cially the serious obstacles to the growth of the Church 
from the want of Episcopal supervision, the impossibili- 
ty of securing confirmation, and the necessity that can- 
didates for orders were under for taking a long, perilous, 
and expensive voyage to England in order to obtain or- 
dination ; and in 1750 he drew up a plan for the introduc- 
tion of the episcopate into America in such a form as 
he supposed would obviate the political objections to it 
made by the colonists. So much opposition, however, 
was offered to the plan that it was soon abandoned. 
Some years after Butler's decease it was again revived ; 
but nothing came of it, and, but for the occurrence of 
the American Revolution and the complete separation 
of the colonies from the mother-country which resulted 
from it, there would probably have never been any 
bishops of the Anglican communion in America. 

Although Bishop Butler never married, and left no 
direct descendants, the family still has representatives 
in England. The eldest brother of 

The Butler family. , , . , i i i i 

the bishop, Robert by name, had 
eight children, one of whom, Joseph, was a clergy- 
man of the Church of England and a prebendary of 
St. Paul's, and had thirteen children. Three of the 
bishop's brothers continued their father's business, and 



LIFE, 



23 



left in the aggregate a large estate, which finally be- 
came concentrated in the hands of Joseph's descend- 
ants in the form of a valuable landed property at Ink- 
pen, near Hungerford, Berks. The present representa- 
tive of the family is the Rev. John Butler, of Kirby 
House, and Rector of Inkpen, the family living. For 
a long time the family has been one of the recognized 
county families of Berkshire. 

The bishop possessed a noble and intellectual ap- 
pearance, in which dignity was combined with refine- 
ment, gentleness, and humility. Says 

Characteristics. ii/tvx« rr^i 

one who knew him well (Miss lal- 
bot) : From the first of my real remembrance I have 
ever known in him the kind, affectionate friend, the 
faithful adviser, which he would condescend to when 
I was quite a child, and the most delightful com- 
panion from a delicacy of thinking, an extreme polite- 
ness, a vast knowledge of the world, and a some- 
thing peculiar to be met with in nobody else ; and 
all this in a man whose sanctity of manners and sub- 
limity of genius gave him one of the first ranks among 
men." 

Surtees, in his history of Durham, gives the follow- 
ing sketch of his appearance : " During the short time 
that Butler held the see of Durham he conciliated all 
hearts. In advanced years he retained the same genu- 
ine modesty and natural sweetness of disposition which 
had distinguished him in youth and in retirement. Dur- 
ing the performance of the sacred office a divine anima- 
tion seemed to pervade his whole manner, and lighted 



24 



BISHOP BUTLER, 



up his pale, wan countenance, already marked with the 
progress of disease, like a torch glimmering in its 
socket, yet bright and useful to the last." These quali- 
ties may be recognized in his portraits. 

There are four original portraits of the bishop ex- 
tant. The earliest of these is in the possession of the 
Bishop of Durham at Auckland Castle, and 

Portraits. 

represents him as a young man in a clergy- 
man's gown during the time when he was the preacher 
at the Rolls. The second was painted by Vander- 
bank when he was about forty years of age and 
resident at Stanhope, and exhibits him at that period 
of his life when he was engaged in the composition 
of the "Analogy." This picture also represents him 
in a clergyman's gown, and with a countenance of 
great intellectual vigor and refined feeling, and in 
many particulars is a singularly graceful and ele- 
gant portrait. It is in the possession of the Rev. John 
Butler, of Kirby House, Inkpen, Berkshire, and an 
engraving of it may be seen in Bell's edition of his 
works. The third portrait was painted by Hudson, 
the predecessor and master of Sir Joshua Reynolds, 
shortly after Butler was made Bishop of Bristol. This 
is by far the finest portrait of the bishop, and repre- 
sents him in his episcopal robes in a standing position, 
and holding an academic cap in his right hand. This 
is also in the possession of the Rev. Mr. Butler at Ink- 
pen. The fourth portrait was painted by Taylor, and 
is in the possession of the Infirmary at Newcastle. It 
is said to be an excellent likeness of the bishop at the 



LIFE. 



25 



time ; but it was painted toward the close of his life, 
and after his health had begun to decline. It repre- 
sents him in his episcopal robes and seated. It is per- 
haps the least pleasing of all the portraits. An engrav- 
ing of it may be seen in the Oxford edition of his 
works, 1820, and there is a fine copy in the hall of Oriel 
College, Oxford.* 

Bishop Butler's temper was quiet and cheerful and 
his disposition affectionate. These qualities not only 
endeared him to all who had the 
Bishop Butlers charac- j^^ppi^ess of knowiupf him, but also 

ter. John Byrom s de- ^ ^ o ' 

scription of him as he rendered him a very agreeable com- 
appeared in a discussion pinion. His mental and moral char- 

at Dr. Hartley s, m Lon- ^ ^ ^ 

don, March, 1737, the actcristics are well illustrated in the 
year following the pubii- following account, given by John 

cation of the " Analogy." 

Byrom, of a social gathering at 
the house of Dr. David Hartley, in London, in 1737, at 
which, besides the host and his wife, Dr. Butler, Mr. 
Lloyd, and himself were present, and a discussion took 
place upon the comparative value of reason and author- 
ity in determining religious truth. This description 
furnishes us with a perfect picture of the bishop's meth- 
od of discourse, style of disputation and manner, and 
of the quietness, calmness, and moderation, by means 
of which, as in this case, he completely disarmed his 
antagonist. This occurred when he was in the full 
maturity of his powers and in the zenith of his fame, 
just after he had published the " Analogy " and had 



* See Bartlett's " Memoirs of Bishop Butler," p. 278. 



26 



BISHOP BUTLER. 



been appointed private chaplain to Queen Caroline, 
and before he had been consecrated Bishop of Bris- 
tol. 

" While we were talking, in came Dr. Butler, to 
whom he (Dr. Hartley) told my name, and the doctor 
said he had seen one of my scholars ; I forget whom. 
Dr. Hartley told him that Dr. Smith was to speak to 
Mr. Pointz about the Duke of Queensborough learning 
short-hand, which Dr. Butler said he thought would do 
very well (if I remember right). He told us about the 
duke's forwardness ; of his passing by when he (Dr. 
Butler) was reading Hobbes to a certain person (viz.. 
Queen Caroline, wife of George II), and that certain 
person saying, * Well, what do you think of this ? ' 
And the duke said : ' There must be right and wrong 
before human laws, which supposed right and wrong ; 
and, besides, wherever was there that state of Nature 
that he talked of ? Who ever lived in it ? * And that 
person (the queen, plainly) said, ^ Well, but if you was 
left to yourself, what would you do ? ' And the duke 
said : ' I can not tell what pleasure, etc., might do to 
blind me ; but, unless it did, so and so, etc' 

" They (Dr. Butler, Dr. Hartley, and Mr. Lloyd) 
talked of Sir Isaac Newton having writ his books with a 
view to religion, and Dr. Butler said that Sir Isaac al- 
ways thought that prophecy was the great proof of the 
Christian religion ; and Monsieur Pascal was mentioned 
and some part of his life, which not being mentioned 
right, I remembered how it was and told them, and 
saying that he was such a genius for mathematical 



LIFE, 27 

knowledge, and that at last he showed the truly great 
man, and left it for knowledge of a superior kind. We 
entered into a kind of dispute about prophecy. And 
I said I thought the Old Testament for prophecy and 
the New for miracles, and that miracles were the readi- 
est proof, upon which arose an argument about reason 
and authority — they being for reason and I for author- 
ity ; that we had reason indeed to follow authority, viz., 
the consent of the Christian Church. Dr. Butler hinted 
at a time when the whole Christian Church almost was 
in the wrong, and then what must become of author- 
ity ? And I said I did not apprehend that there had 
been such a time, thinking that he meant the Arian 
times, which were probably not so universal, as Dr. 
Deacon had, I believe, rightly observed once, viz., that 
it was only a flight of St. Jerome. I mentioned the say- 
ing, ' Credo quia impossibile est,' and Dr. Butler told of 
that saying of Tertullian, and I contended for the just- 
ness of that expression : that it was that where reason 
was not a proper judge, it being a thing impossible to 
reason, there faith was to believe ; that man had a heart 
capable of being faithful, as well as a head capable of 
being rational; and that religion applied itself to the 
heart. Dr. Butler talked with much mildness, and my- 
self with too much impetuosity. I desired to know 
where the New Testament mentioned reason so, and 
they mentioned that of * Search the Scriptures,* which 
I said was ' Ye do search the Scriptures ' ; and then 
they said that I reasoned, and I said that I had it from 
authority ; that if either were like me, it was not reason 



28 



BISHOP BUTLER, 



that convinced, but probably the reading- of some life of 
a true Christian believer. Dr. Butler said that author- 
ity had brought the Roman Catholic to worship a piece 
of bread for the Supreme God ; I said that as to that, 
it was but just to hear a Roman Catholic's own ex- 
planation of his belief on that point. He asked what 
I could say to a Quaker ? I said that I was born in 
the Church of England ; and, therefore, Providence 
having placed me under authority, I had it not to 
search so far; and that as reason sent me to no par- 
ticular place, that did ; that I considered a man how he 
was born under the parental authority — that if a person 
should invite a child to leave his father's house, he 
might give very good reasons, as that he should fare 
better, have finer things, etc., but still the child would 
stick to the parental authority. But how would you 
do, said he (Dr. Butler), if your father commanded what 
was contrary to the laws of God ? Then I said that all 
authority was in effect the authority of God, and there- 
fore he — the father — could not command wrong by au- 
thority ; but if he did, a humble representation would 
become the child, and instanced in a soldier led by his 
officer upon a wrong expedition : he must obey, or the 
army and discipline would be confounded. I mentioned 
the faith of Abraham, and they said he reasoned that 
he could raise Isaac from the dead. I said, suppose he 
had not understood or known the resurrection of the 
dead, would not his faith have been still greater, sup- 
posing the certainty of the Divine command, and in- 
stanced in the case of credit given to a friend in whom 



LIFE. 29 

we formerly trusted. Dr. Butler mentioned Mahomet, 
and how his authority led people astray. I said that it 
was well that they followed his authority, for by that 
they left their wooden gods for the worship of one God, 
by which Providence was leading them about to Chris- 
tianity, permitting some errors of less consequence rath- 
er than to continue in idolatry ; that in effect the bulk 
of mankind were led by authority, and that I questioned 
if we were not all so, though we did not discover it. 
Dr. Butler said, ' But would it not have been better if 
the people had followed Mahomet in what was right, 
and distinguished the wrong from it ? ' I said : * Yes, 
it would have been better ; but it was not fact that they 
did or could so distinguish, and therefore it appeared 
that authority was the proper way to bring people ; 
that if the apostles had stood reasoning like the learned 
philosophers, they would not have done so well ; that 
St. Peter reasoned against his Master when he told him 
that he would suffer, and was rebuked ; that his reason 
did not suffice to preserve him from denying him, 
though he had such a resolution and reason not to do 
it ; that I did not deny, as they seemed to think, that a 
man must follow his reason, because that expression 
was used in a good sense, but that reason was the cause 
of his doing wrong as well as right, and there was occa- 
sion through his great weakness and misery for some- 
thing superior, viz., faith ; and I said that, upon the 
whole, the business was to find out the True Prophet, 
and then what he said was to be believed, and that was 
an easy, comfortable way of being safe.' ' But what,' 



30 BISHOP BUTLER. 

said they, * if authority should mislead him ? ' ' Why, 
then he had some excuse, which he could not have if he 
misled himself.' 

Dr. Butler stayed about or above two hours, till 
about eleven o'clock, and went away, and we supped, 
and I ate some bread and cheese and drank a glass or 
two of sack, and said, ^ I wished I had Dr. Butler's temper 
and calmness ; yet not quite, because I thought he was 
a little too little vigorous,' which they seemed to think 
too, for Mr. Lloyd said ' that he had wished that he 
would have spoke more earnestly.' We came away 
about twelve." * 

" Byrom evidently thought that Butler's superiority 
to him in the argument, which he seems tacitly to ac- 
knowledge, arose rather from temper than from power; 
but the reader will at once see that Byrom spread his 
arguments over too wide a surface, and exposed too 
many points of attack to so wary an opponent. Yet 
Butler evidently felt he had to do with an original 
thinker, who thought not always right, but seldom far 
wrong." f 

Bishop Butler was extravagantly fond of music, and 
when at Durham his secretary, who had been a choris- 
ter at St. Paul's when he was dean. 

Fond of music and archi- , , , , a. \ - 

^ , was accustomed to play to him on 

tecture. ^ 

the organ in private. He was also 
extremely interested in architecture, and wherever he 
resided was disposed to expend large sums in the im- 



* " Private Journal and Literary Remains of John Byrom " (published by 
the Chetham Society), Vol. II, Part I, pp. 95-99. t Note to the same. 



LIFE. 



31 



provement of cathedrals, churches, and rectories. This 
he did at Bristol, at Haughton, Stanhope, and Durham. 
His generosity and liberality to public and private char- 
itable objects was proverbial. He is said to have sub- 
scribed four hundred pounds per annum to the County 
Hospital at Newcastle. On one occasion, having been 
applied to for aid in behalf of some benevolent project, 
he inquired of his steward how much money he had in 
the house. On being told five hundred pounds, Five 
hundred pounds," he said ; what a shame for a bishop 
to have so much ! Give it away at once — give it to this 
gentleman, who has a good use for it." On another 
occasion he declared to his secretary, " I should feel 
ashamed of myself if I could leave ten thousand pounds 
behind me." In fact, he left only about nine thousand 
pounds, a sum amounting to not more than one half of 
his annual income. This is certainly very remarkable 
when we consider what a magnificent revenue he en- 
joyed as Bishop of Durham, and the extreme simplicity 
of his private habits. He was also religiously honest in 
distributing his patronage. 

Several interesting anecdotes have been preserved 
of him. Of these the following is one of the most re- 
markable. His chaplain, Dr. Tuck- 
Anecdotes concerning afterward the Dean of Glou- 
cester, says : " His custom was, 
when at Bristol, to walk for hours in his garden in the 
darkest nights, and I had frequently the honor to attend 
him. On one occasion, after walking some time, he 
stopped suddenly and asked the question : * What secur- 



32 



BISHOP BUTLER. 



ity is there against the insanity of individuals ? The 
physicians know of none, and, as to divines, we have no 
data either from Scripture or from reason to go upon in 
relation to this affair.' ' True, my lord ; no man has a 
lease of his understanding any more than of his life. 
They are both in the hands of the Sovereign Disposer 
of all things/ He then took another turn and again 
stopped short. ' Why might not whole communities as 
well as individuals be seized with insanity ? ' ' My lord, 
I have never considered the case, and can give no opin- 
ion concerning it.' ' Nothing,' replied the bishop, * but 
this principle, that they are liable to insanity equally at 
least with private persons, can account for the major 
part of those transactions of which we read in history.' 
I thought little of this odd conceit of the bishop at that 
time, but I have not been able to avoid thinking of it a 
great deal since and applying it to many cases." 

Dean Tucker, who was a warm friend of America, 
applied this anecdote to the conduct of the mother- 
country in managing the dispute between herself and 
the colonies in 1774 and 1775, and which resulted in the 
American Revolution. It is, however, susceptible of a 
much wider and more general application. 

A still more interesting anecdote is related of the 
bishop's last moments. When he lay on his death-bed, 
he called for his chaplain and said, " Though I have en- 
deavored to avoid sin and to please God to the utmost 
of my power, yet from the consciousness of perpetual 
infirmities I am still afraid to die." " My lord," said the 
chaplain, " you have forgotten that Jesus Christ is a 



LIFE. 33 

Saviour." " True," was the answer; "but how shall I 
know that he is a Saviour to me ? " " My lord, it is 
written, ' Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast 
out.* " " True," said the bishop, " and I am surprised 
that, though I have read that scripture a thousand times 
over, I never felt its virtue until this moment, and now 
I die happy." 

Bishop Butler was undoubtedly a man of extraordi- 
nary intellectual ability, and possessed of great strength 
and force of mind. His powers of 

Intellectual ability. 

observation and reflection were 
very remarkable. He was an eminent metaphysician 
and a great philosopher. His learning in his own 
special fields of research was very profound. To the 
most cursory reader it must be evident that the au- 
thor of the Sermons on Human Nature," and of the 
other Rolls Chapel sermons, was deeply read in the 
philosophical writings of the ancients, and also of the 
moderns down to his own day, and indeed thoroughly 
saturated with all the philosophical thought that had 
preceded him. It is also equally evident that the 
** Analogy " could not have been written by one who 
was not very familiar with the results of modern sci- 
ence in his own time ; that its author must have kept 
a very intelligent eye upon all that was going on in 
the scientific world, from the time of Newton onward ; 
and that he also with remarkable sagacity detected 
what was involved in these great discoveries, and fore- 
saw with perfect distinctness all the consequences 
flowing from them, and the future developments, for 

3 



34 BISHOP BUTLER. 

which they prepared the way. Otherwise he could not 
have written as he did concerning the constitution and 
course of Nature. In this respect Butler's immense 
superiority over other men was conspicuously shown. 
His wonderful powers of observation and reflection 
enabled him to see in the works of God and in the dis- 
coveries of man what no other man up to his day had 
seen, and what oftentimes the authors of these discov- 
eries themselves failed to see, for men are frequently 
remarkably ignorant of the real importance and conse- 
quences of their own works. But it was not upon the 
world of thought, of science, and of literature alone that 
Bishop Butler kept a vigilant eye ; he was an equally 
keen observer of the drama of life as it was daily un- 
folded, and of human nature as displayed in human acts, 
an accurate discerner of the consequences of these acts, 
and of the actual carrying on of God's government of 
human affairs, as well as of the great moral principle 
on which that government is conducted. The whole 
book of human life was open at all times before him, 
and in it he read at his leisure the destinies of man. 
No one can look at his countenance as depicted in his 
portraits, and especially in that of Vanderbank, without 
seeing that he possessed a keen and intelligent eye, 
which took in at a glance everything that was pass- 
ing around him. This wonderful eye, this extraordi- 
nary keenness of sight, was to a large extent the source 
of those extraordinary powers of observation which, 
combined with his equally wonderful powers of reflec- 
tion and of thought, enabled him to achieve such sur- 



ANALOGY. 35 

prising discoveries. Butler was indeed pre-eminently 
a man of original genius and one of the greatest intel- 
lects the world has ever seen. Time, instead of dim- 
ming the luster of his fame, seems to be continually 
augmenting it, and at no period has it been greater than 
at the present moment. Within a few years there has 
been a remarkable revival of attention to both his great 
works, owing very largely to the influence of Dr. 
Whewell, late Master of Trinity College, Cambridge ; of 
Dr. Chalmers in Scotland ; and of Dr. Wayland, late 
President of Brown University in this country. 

The best edition of Butler's complete works is that 
in two vols., 8vo, Oxford, 1849, recently republished by 
Macmillan. The most valuable edition of the "Anal- 
ogy " is that of the late Dr. W. Fitzgerald, Bishop of 
Killaloe, London, i860; and of the "Sermons" that of 
Rev. R. Carmichael, London, 1856. 

After this brief sketch of Bishop Butler's life and 
character, let us proceed to the principal subject of this 
dissertation, viz., the examination of 
ButC's'^p"^^^^^^ ^^^^^ work upon the "Analogy 

of Religion, Natural and Revealed, 
to the Constitution and Course of Nature," which we 
have taken as our guide in discussing the nature of man 
considered as a religious being, reserving the considera- 
tion of his other great work, the "Fifteen Sermons 
preached at the Chapel of the Rolls Court, London," 
including the three famous "Sermons on Human Na- 
ture," until we come to the discussion of the " Nature 
of Man considered as a Moral Being." 



36 



BISHOP BUTLER. 



And first it is necessary to begin with the determina- 
tion of the exact meaning of the title, because the sig- 
nification of the title is frequent- 
Title of the book and the 1 • i_ J J r\-u J. 

, c r . ly misapprehended. Observe that 

definition of the term 

"analogy." A misappre- the title is not "The analogy be- 
hension of the title cor- ^^^^^ revealed religion and natu- 

rected. ^ 

ral religion." The full title is, " The 
Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed, to the 
Constitution and Course of Nature." The things com- 
pared are religion, natural and revealed, on the one 
hand, and the constitution and course of Nature on the 
other. It is not a comparison of revealed religion with 
natural religion, as is sometimes supposed. 

The term " analogy " means similarity. Archbishop 
Whately contends that the meaning of the term analogy 
is similarity or likeness of ratios ; but as Bishop Butler 
uses the word, it seems to denote simply similarity or 
likeness. Two things are said to be analogous when 
there is a similarity in their constitution or in their es- 
sential structure, and, in spite of all differences, a 
likeness in certain important and fundamental partic- 
ulars. The meaning, then, of the title of this book, 
as thus interpreted, is simply the analogy or similar- 
ity between the principles of religion, natural and re- 
vealed, and the constitution and course of Nature. By 
natural religion is meant the summary of the truths 
which men by the use of their own reason have 
been able to work out in regard to the existence and 
attributes of God, and man's relations to him : such 
as that there is a God, the Creator of man and of the 



ANALOGY. 



37 



world ; that he is a moral being, and a moral governor ; 
that the moral law is his command ; that conscience is 
his voice ; that he reads our hearts and knows our most 
secret thoughts; that he has absolute power over our 
happiness and our misery ; that he rewards and pun- 
ishes us for our actions, as we obey or disobey his laws ; 
and that this government by rewards and punishments 
will continue in another life when this life is finished. 
By revealed religion is meant the summary of the acts 
performed by our Lord Jesus Christ in working out 
the salvation of man, as these are stated in the Apos- 
tles* Creed, together with the doctrines and duties 
taught by him during his sojourn on earth. The ob- 
ject of the bishop is to trace the similarity or anal- 
ogy between these truths thus made known first by 
reason, and second by revelation, on the one hand, 
and, on the other, the principles that underlie the con- 
stitution and course of things in this world in which we 
live. 

The title, therefore, embraces five distinct points: i. 
Natural religion. 2. Revealed religion. 3. The consti- 



of Nature. 5. The comparison of revealed religion 
with the constitution and course of Nature. 

And in order to carry out the design of the author 
and to make this comparison perfect, it is not only 



The design of this book "ecessary to have a thorough 



requires not simply a knowledge of the principles of nat- 



The title involves five 
distinct points. 



tution and course of Nature. 4. 
The comparison of natural religion 
with the constitution and course 



38 



BISHOP BUTLER, 



knowledge of the princi- ural and of revealed religion, but 

pies of natural and re- ^j^^ ^j^g constitution and COUrse 
vealed religion, but also 

a determination of what of Nature, or, in Other words, of 

is the constitution and ^^e circumstances in which we are 

course of the Natural , . . . . . . i <- , 

world in which we live, pl^ccd m this world and of the 
based upon our observa- principles that underlie them. 

tions of what is going on ^ t r xi ^ • ^ 

arouBd us. This deter- ^ence One of the most important 
mination constitutes one advantages of the study of this 

of the most important ^^^^ knowledge which it 

features of the book. ° 

imparts in regard to our present po- 
sition in the worlds and in its calling our attention to 
a multitude of operations going on around us by which 
our lives are of necessity controlled that otherwise we 
never should have thought of, thus opening up our 
minds to the contemplation of the true realities of life 
and teaching us how to observe them. We are virtu- 
ally introduced by it into a new world of observation 
and of reflection. 

This is indeed a most important incidental advan- 
tage to be derived from the study of this great work, 
and one which deserves our special attention. The 
truths of natural religion we already know ; the truths 
of revealed religion are also well understood — that is, 
two out of the three factors required for the com- 
parison which is to be made we are already acquainted 
with ; but what the third factor — the constitution and 
course of Nature — is, we do not know. It is still unde- 
termined, and we can not proceed a single step in our 
comparison until this third factor is accurately ascer- 
tained. The determination of this third factor is that 



ANALOGY, 



39 



which our author first undertakes to accomplish and to 
point out. 

This treatise might, therefore, be appropriately de- 
scribed as an investigation into and a description of the 
^ . , , . constitution and course of Nature, 

It IS largely a treatise up- 
on the constitution and with the view of Comparing with 
course of Nature. ^^iQii ascertained the doctrines of 

natural religion in the first place, and afterward those of 
revealed religion. In order to determine this unknown 
factor, viz., the constitution and course of Nature, the 
most thorough examination and analysis possible of the 
realities of our present existence must be made, with 
the design of ascertaining what is actually going on 
around us, and finding out under what sort of a consti- 
tution we are positively living. By this process the veil 
which has hitherto concealed the true nature of human 
life is drawn aside, and for the first time we learn to see 
it as it is, and what its real course and issues are. A 
new light is, as it were, suddenly shot over the whole 
of existence, with the effect of a revelation. What can 
be more deeply impressive than the second chapter in 
the first part, " on the government of God by rewards 
and punishments, and particularly of the latter," the 
third chapter ''on the moral government of God," or 
the fifth chapter " of a state of probation as intended for 
moral discipline and improvement " ? We must all be 
conscious of the profound and ineffaceable impression 
made upon our minds and hearts when these chapters 
were first perused. We perceive that thus far we have 
been living in an ideal and imaginary world. Now for 



40 



BISHOP BUTLER. 



the first time we are introduced to the true realities of 
life. We perceive the tremendous and solemn relations 
to God and to eternity by which we are encompassed. 
We can never again be the same beings that we were 
before or lead the same lives. This is perhaps the first 
and in some respects the most important effect of this 
treatise upon the minds of those who read it for the 
first time. It is first and chiefly a treatise upon the 
constitution and course of Nature, with which in the 
second place are subsequently compared the doctrines 
of natural and revealed religion. 

But the design of the author in writing this book 
was not to stop short at this point, viz., the determina- 
tion of the constitution and course 

The design of the author 

is twofold, to prove prob- Nature and the comparison with 
ability and to remove ob- it that has just been indicated, but 

jections. i . • • • 

to use this investigation and com- 
parison for the purpose of removing the objections that 
had been raised against natural and revealed religion, 
and of proving that their doctrines, instead of having 
anything improbable about them or any presumptions 
lying against them, have all the probabilities in their 
favor, and are more likely to be true than not, and 
therefore ought to be favorably received by reasonable 
men : for why should not reasonable men be inclined 
to receive as true what is more likely to be true than 
not ? It is reasonable to receive these doctrines, un- 
reasonable not to receive them. Having accomplished 
by this process the removal of all objections against 
these doctrines and established an a priori presumption 



ANALOGY. 



41 



in their favor, our author next proceeds to an examina- 
tion of the positive evidences for their truth, and shows 
by their analogy to the various kinds of evidence upon 
which men rely in cases of similar importance, that 
this evidence — miraculous, prophetic, and historical — 
can stand the application to it of the most severe tests 
for truth that have ever been devised by the mind of 
man, and is therefore perfectly reliable, and its force so 
overwhelming as to prove that the doctrines of natural 
and revealed religion are absolutely and unanswerably 
true. The object of the author, be it noticed, is not to 
prove the truth of the doctrines of natural and revealed 
religion by the presentation of the various evidences 
in their favor. His object is simply to show what 
there is in the constitution and course of Nature to 
confirm the proper proof of these doctrines supposed 
to be known. To regard it as a treatise upon the evi- 
dences of natural religion, or of revealed religion, or of 
Christianity distinctively, is a misapprehension. This 
is a point very important to be borne in mind. 

He says himself : " The purpose of this treatise is 
not properly to prove the truth of religion, but to ob- 
serve what there is in the consti- 

The object of the book is 

not to prove the truth of tution and COUrSC of Nature to con- 
either natural or revealed firm the proper proof of it, sup- 
religion, but to show - - , A 1 
what there is in the con- poscd to be known. * Andagam 
stitution and course of in another placc : It is come, I 

Nature to confirm the ^^^^^ j^q^ how, tO be taken for 
proper proof of both sup- ' 

posed to be known. granted by many persons that 

* "Analogy," Part I, chap. iii. 



42 



BISHOP BUTLER. 



Christianity is not so much a subject of inquiry, but 
that it is now at length discovered to be fictitious. 
And accordingly they treat it as if in the present age 
this were an agreed point among all people of dis- 
cernment ; and nothing remained but to set it up as a 
principal subject of mirth and ridicule as it were, by 
way of reprisals, for its having so long interrupted the 
pleasures of the world. On the contrary, thus much at 
least will here be found, not taken for granted^ but proved, 
that any reasonable man, who will thoroughly consider 
the matter, may be as much assured of as he is of his 
own beings that it is not, however {anyhow), so clear a case 
that there is nothing in it. There is, I think, strong evi- 
dence of its truth ; but it is certain no one can, upon 
principles of reason, be satisfied of the contrary. And 
the practical consequence to be drawn from this, is not 
attended to by every one who is concerned in it." * 

His main object, it will be observed, therefore, is not 
to present the strongest possible proof of the doctrines 
of natural and revealed religion, but simply to consider, 
anterior to all proof, what the probabilities from the cir- 
cumstances of the case are ; what conclusion we must 
come to, on the whole, in regard to the truth of these 
doctrines, when these circumstances are carefully con- 
sidered. When the question is raised, To which side 
the balance inclines?" on the whole does it not incline 
to the likelihood that these doctrines are true? Take 
the subject of the first chapter, for instance, " Of a Fu- 



Advertisement or preface to the *' Analogy." 



ANALOGY. 43 

ture Life," the object of the author is not to establish 
this doctrine formally, by presenting all the positive 
evidence and proof of it, and by constructing an argu- 
ment in its favor, based upon these proofs, but simply 
to consider what the probabilities in the case are, 
drawn from our observation and experience. The 
doctrine being asserted, what opinion must we form 
of its probability, from our own present knowledge ? 
On the whole, does not this doctrine appear to be more 
likely to be true than not? Why not listen, then, to 
the positive and formal proofs, when they come to be 
presented, with a favorable ear? Does it not fall in 
with the facts of life of which we have daily experi- 
ence ? Why, then, if this is the case, should we not be 
prepared to give an impartial hearing to the positive 
proof, when it is all handed in ? The object is simply 
to show that in the nature of things there is an a priori 
presumption in favor of a future life. This being so, it 
is the easier for man to receive and to believe this great 
doctrine of natural and revealed religion. It is no 
longer irrational and unreasonable to receive it, but 
irrational and unreasonable not to receive it. 

The same method is pursued successively with all 
the other doctrines of natural and revealed religion, and 
a like conclusion is reached that it is no longer irration- 
al and unreasonable to receive them, but irrational and 
unreasonable not to receive them. 

He was led to write the book by the infidelity of the 
age in which he lived. Guizot, in his "History of Euro- 
pean Civilization," says that "the dominant character 



44 BISHOP BUTLER. 

of the religious reformation of the sixteenth century 
was the enfranchisement of the human mind, and its in- 
surrection against absolute power 
How he was led to write ^y^^ religious order. It was a 

the book. Pohtical, phi- ° 

losophical, and religious great movement for the liberty of 
history of the preceding human mind : a new necessity 

period. 

for freely thinking and judging, on 
its own account and with its own powers, of facts and 
ideas which hitherto Europe had received, or was held 
bound to receive, from the hands of authority."* 

Until the Reformation, men were required to receive 
as true whatever was taught by the Church, without 
any proof either from Scripture or from reason — that is, 
truth was determined by authority exercised arbitrarily. 
The intellectual pride and self-respect of men urged 
them to revolt against this tyranny and to demand 
some reasons for, some proofs of, the doctrines sought 
to be enforced, either from the Holy Scriptures or from 
the Catholic creeds, or from the testimony of the Fa- 
thers, or from the general consent of the Church. But 
the Roman Church said : No, we will give you no rea- 
sons ; our assertion is sufficient. The revolt against this 
tyranny led to the Reformation, first in Germany and 
then in England. The right of free inquiry having thus 
been secured in the realm of religion, it was next 
sought to extend it to politics and to government. It 
was claimed that government should be exercised and 
administered in accordance Avith law and right. But 



* Guizot, " History of Civilization in Europe," lecture xii, p. 220 (Bohn's 
edition). 



ANALOGY. 



45 



the princes that then ruled over Europe insisted upon 
the divine right of kings, and that men should obey 
their decrees implicitly and without question. This 
led to a revolt against political tyranny, and this 
revolt first took place in England, beginning with a 
political resistance to arbitrary power in Parliament, 
and then passing on afterward to resistance by force. 
Finally, persistence on the part of Charles I cost him his 
life. This was the first time since the introduction of 
Christianity when men had ventured to lay hands on an 
anointed and crowned king and for political offenses 
dare to put him to death by the hands of a civil magis- 
trate under the forms of law and after a public trial. 
This was followed by the expulsion of the Stuarts in 
1688, just before Bishop Butler was born, and by the 
establishment of constitutional liberty in that country. 

In this manner free thought triumphed both in the 
Church and in the State. Not content with these 
triumphs, the minds of men now sought to effect a simi- 
lar enfranchisement in every other realm of thought, 
and to question all commonly received opinions on all 
subjects. Sir Isaac Newton had just overthrown the 
generally received system of the universe (1687); Locke, 
in his " Essay concerning Human Understanding," pub- 
lished in 1690, had accomplished a similar revolution 
in mental and moral philosophy. Why should not all 
other ancient doctrines of universal acceptation be simi- 
larly questioned and similarly overtho wn ? Why should 
not the great Christian doctrines of the divinity of 
Christ, his atonement, his intercession, his sending the 



46 BISHOP BUTLER. 

Holy Spirit, be similarly questioned and similarly over- 
thrown ? Nay, further, why should his religion be re- 
ceived at all ? Why were men not just as well off without 
it as with it ? Are not his doctrines incomprehensible, 
and, if incomprehensible, ought they not to be rejected ? 
This was the way in which men's minds worked. It 
was an age of general questioning and of universal skep- 
ticism in regard to everything that had previousl}^ been 
generally received, and this led to the writing of a great 
many books during the first half of the eighteenth cent- 
ury directed against Christianity. Not content with 
denying the divinity of our Lord and the other ortho- 
dox doctrines of Christianity, the latitudinarians at- 
tacked the credibility of miracles, and even denied the 
possibility of a divine revelation. Christianity was de- 
nounced as unphilosophical, or, at any rate, as unne- 
cessary. " Lord Herbert, of Cherbury, and Thomas 
^ , , Hobbes, of Malmesbury, were the 

Lecky's "History of Eng- ' ^ ^ ^' 

land intheisth Century." leaders in this spccics of Writing. 
"Essays and Reviews." -p^ey were followcd by Toland, a 
writer for the press, with his work, ' Christianity not 
Mysterious ' ; by Lord Shaftesbury, in his ' Characteris- 
tics of Men and Manners ' ; by Anthony Collins, a Cam- 
bridge graduate, of Eton and King's College, in his 
^ Discourse on Free Thinking ' ; by Woolston, a fellow 
of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, in ' Six Dis- 
courses against Miracles ' ; by Tindal, fellow of All 
Souls, Oxford, in his work entitled * Christianity as old 
as the Creation,' published in 1730; by Morgan, in the 
* Moral Philosopher,' and by Thomas Chubb, a jour- 



ANALOGY. 



A7 



neyman glover, in divers tracts and essays written for 
the people. These were succeeded by Lord Boling- 
broke, Avho in his * First Philosophy ' sweeps away 
every part of Christianity but its moral teaching — ' no 
particular Providence, no future state, no immaterial 
soul.' " Bolingbroke was followed by Hume, and later 
still, toward the close of the century, by Gibbon and by 
Paine. 

Of course, all these astounding assertions were not 
allowed to go unquestioned, and a vast number of ex- 
tremely able replies were soon published by many of 
the most distinguished of the bishops and clergy of the 
Church of England. 

Arguments based upon authority having lost their 
force, a necessity had now arisen for an entirely differ- 
, , ^ ent method of treating- moral and 

A new method for dis- ^ ° 

cussing theological ques- religious Subjects, founded upon 
tions demanded. ^^iQ plain declarations of Holy 

Scripture, shown not to be contradictory to one another 
and not open to reasonable objections. As the divine 
origin of the Holy Scriptures had been questioned, it 
had become necessary to prove this point, as well as to 
show that the doctrines contained in them were clearly 
stated and free from contradictions. The treatises of 
the older divines of the sixteenth and seventeenth cent- 
uries, in which the doctrines of the Christian faith were 
supported by quotations from the Fathers of the primi- 
tive church and defended by their authority, were su- 
perseded by those in which the same doctrines were 
attempted to be sustained by an appeal to the Holy 



48 BISHOP BUTLER. 

Scriptures as well as to the universal faith of the Church 
interpreted with reference to the general meaning of 
the whole of revealed truth as ascertained by reason 
and explained by the circumstances of the case. It was 
sought to remove objections, to show that these doc- 
trines were not contradictory, were confirmed by a 
large amount of testimony from every part of the sa- 
cred volume, were not unreasonable, but altogether in 
conformity with reason and common sense, and capable 
of being maintained and defended by the same methods 
of arguing as are used in discussing other subjects of 
similar importance. 

Various metaphysical objections having been raised 
against the doctrine of the Trinity, the divinity of our 
Lord, and the other great doc- 
This method equally well ^^-^^^ Christian faith, an at- 

adapted to the needs of 

the nineteenth century, tempt waS nOW made tO point OUt 

Dr. Waterland its princi- exactly and clcariy their true mean- 

pal representative. 

ing, and to free them from the am- 
biguity and exaggeration with which they had some- 
times been expressed ; to show that they were not 
impossible, but, on the contrary, thoroughly possible ; 
and, finally, to prove that they were certainly true. In 
other words, an attempt was made to show, first, what 
their true meaning was ; second, whether they were 
possible ; third, whether they were true.* To answer 
the second of these questions, whether they were pos- 
sible, involved an appeal to observation and to reason, 



* Bishop Van Mildert's " Life of Waterland." 



ANALOGY. 



49 



and in the making of this appeal to observation and to 
reason consisted the peculiar characteristic of the new- 
school of defenders of the faith, such as Bishop Sher- 
lock, Dr. Waterland, Bishop Warburton, Dr. Balguy, 
Bishop Butler, and a host of other great divines of the 
Church of England in the first half of the eighteenth 
century. Without this change of method, Christianity 
might for a time have been discarded, as destitute of 
proper and reasonable proof. It was a school of theo- 
logians admirably adapted to the age in which it origi- 
nated and to every age since, and to the present age 
of the nineteenth century as well. And for this reason 
the works of the great divines of the Church of Eng- 
land in the eighteenth century, and especially those of 
Dr. Waterland, are those to which we must resort as to 
great treasure-houses for the arguments that are needed 
to convince a gainsaying and a doubting world ; and 
this is the reason why they are admirably adapted to 
this age and to this country, and why they should be 
studied by night and by day by those among us who 
wish to make a permanent mark upon the thought of 
our time. 

Bishop Butler's " Analogy " is a work written on 
this principle, and is designed to prove the reasonable- 
ness of the great doctrines of the 
Bishop Butler's book was Christian faith. It is the most cele- 

written upon the new 

method, and probably in- bratcd of the answcrs to the attacks 
tended to be an answer to of the freethinkers, and is supposed 

Matthew Tindal's work • n t i 

entitled "Christianity as ^o havc been especially directed 
old as the Creation." against Matthew Tindal's book en- 

4 



50 



BISHOP BUTLER. 



titled " Christianity as old as the Creation, or the Gos- 
pel a Republication of the Religion of Nature " (1730). 
Tindal was an educated man and a fellow of All Souls 
College, Oxford, and therefore from his education and 
position worthy of more than common notice. In this 
book an attempt had been made to show that Chris- 
tianity was unnecessary, and that its doctrines needed 
only to be stated in order to be seen to be untrue ; 
that all the probabilities were against these doctrines 
being true ; that a revelation was indeed not to be 
considered possible. 

Bishop Butler, in reply, undertakes to show that 
these doctrines, instead of being probably untrue, are 
more likely to be true than not ; 

Bishop Butler's method , r • i i • r 

of answering Tindal con- that, for mstaucc, the doctrmc of 
sists in showing that the the mediation of Christ ought to 

principles of natural and • i i i i 

revealed religion are in. be received by reasonable men. 
wrought into the present Why ? Bccausc it IS more likely 

actual constitution and >Ui- ^.o^u 

^ to be true than not. But why 

course of Nature, and that 

hence the former are more likely to be true than not? 
more likely to be true Bg^ause it is in exact accordance 

than not, and that the 

probability is in their with what wc See Constantly going 
favor, on account of the coursc of Nature and in 

analogy between them ^ 

and the actual facts of the world around us m which we 
daily life. are now living, in which it is a 

universally prevailing fact that the blessings and ben- 
efits that men enjoy come to them through the instru- 
mentality and mediation of others — that is, the fact of 
mediation is one of the recognized principles inwrought 
into the actual constitution of the world in which we 



ANALOGY, 



51 



are placed. There is an analogy between this doc- 
trine and that actual constitution and course of Na- 
ture under which we find ourselves living. There 
can, therefore, be no objection against the doctrine 
on the ground of improbability ; but, on the contrary, 
there is an a priori presumption in favor of its truth 
altogether anterior to any positive proof because ex- 
perience and observation show us that it has not only 
been acted upon very frequently already, but also that 
it is constantly acted upon every day now, being in- 
wrought into the actual life of men, without which that 
life could not be carried on. In this way the bishop 
passes in review the various doctrines of natural and re- 
vealed religion, and shows that they are not only not 
antecedently unlikely to be true, but are really more 
likely to be true than the reverse ; that the presumptions 
are altogether in favor of their truth, and that therefore 
they are susceptible of firm establishment by a very 
small amount of positive evidence in support of them. 
Christianity is thus shown not only not to be incredi- 
ble, unlikely, or improbable in itself, but also to be ex- 
actly what our own observation of what is going on 
around us might teach us would probably be the char- 
acter of any revelation made to us by the Creator. 
That there is a Creator, " the intelligent author of 
Nature and a Natural Governor of the world," is an 
assumption that is expressly made at the outset in the 
introduction to the '^Analogy," is taken for granted, 
as universally admitted, and needing no special proof, 
and underlies the whole course of thought running 



52 



BISHOP BUTLER. 



through the entire work. This is to be carefully kept 
in mind. 

This is the general character of the Bishop's argu- 
ment, and you will readily see that it depends for its 
force upon the number and close- 

His argument depends i • i 

upon the closeness of the "CSS of the analogies that Can be 
analogy established be- established between the doctrines of 

tween the principles of .it i i t • i 

natural and revealed re- ^^^^^^1 revealed religion On the 

ligion and the constitu- one hand and the constitution and 

tion and course of Nature. x tvt i. ^.i- j 

course of Nature on the other ; and 
that, in order to prove the existence of these analogies, 
a searching investigation must be made in order to as- 
certain what the constitution and course of Nature are. 
Hence is derived, as has been already stated, one of the 
most important advantages of the study of this work, 
viz., that of necessity it shows us what the constitu- 
tion and course of this Natural world in which we are 
living are, and points out many operations in God's 
government now going on around us of which until 
we read of them in this book we had never dreamed. 
It introduces us virtually into a new sphere, so that 
ever afterward we move in a different world from 
that in which we had lived up to this time. It not 
only shows us what the constitution and course of 
Nature are, and that its Designer and Creator is a 
moral being and a moral governor, but it also points 
out to us that there is an adaptation of this constitution 
of Nature to the moral and religious nature of man, and 
incidentally shows us very clearly what that nature is ; 
and you will readily see, therefore, that from the struct- 



ANALOGY. 53 

ure of the argument no book could afford us more as- 
sistance in our investigation into the moral and relig- 
ious constitution of man, the relations that he stands in 
to the moral Governor of the universe, the religious 
duties that are incumbent upon him in consequence of 
these relations, and the right path to take in order to 
pass safely through the gate of death to the paradise 
of the intermediate state, and, finally, after our joyful 
resurrection, to the felicity of the mansions into which 
the Son of man will introduce his faithful servants in 
the perfection of their being, body, soul, and spirit, when 
he revisits the earth for judgment in the glory of his 
Father. 

But here, it may be inquired, " How is it that the 
analogy between the doctrines of natural and revealed 
Why is it that the analogy religion and the Constitution and 
between natural and re- ^^^^^^ Nature renders the 

vealed religion and the 

constitution and course former morc likely to be true than 

of Nature render the for- not ? " To anSWCr this quCStion 
mer more likely to be . , . 

true than not ? This ex- wc must considcr what it IS that 
pla^^^^- constitutes the basis of probability, 

and entitles us to say of any assertion that it is more 
likely to be true than not. 

Now, if we closely analyze the process that is car- 
ried on in our own minds when we say that an alleged 
event or statement is probably true, 

The basis of probability i n i i i i • r 

is similarity to something ^C shall find that the baSlS of 

already acknowledged to probability is Hkcness or similarity 
between the thing represented to 
be probable and some other thing that we know from 



54 



BISHOP BUTLER. 



our past experience to be certainly true. Why do we 
say that any particular future event will probably hap- 
pen? Simply because we perceive certain conditions 
in existence in the case in question, which conditions, 
when they have been previously observed in similar 
cases, have uniformly been followed by the event in 
question. For instance, why do we say that "it will 
probably rain to-day " ? Simply because we observe 
that the sky is covered with dark and heavy clouds, 
and we remember that when similar clouds appeared 
a week ago they were followed by rain — that is, the 
present conditions are similar to previous conditions, 
and we infer that the event in the present case follow- 
ing the present conditions will probably be the same as 
the event that we know actually followed similar con-'^ 
ditions in the previous case. Why do we say that the 
existing French Republic will probably be short-lived ? 
Simply because we observe certain conditions con- 
nected with it similar to the conditions connected with 
previous republics in the same nation and which were 
then followed by disaster, and we conclude that a simi- 
lar end will follow similar conditions existing in the 
present case. Why do we say that the world was prob- 
ably made by an intelligent Creator? Simply because 
we detect in the constitution of the world indications of 
design, and we remember that when we have observed in- 
dications of design in previous instances we have known 
with absolute certainty that the design proceeded from 
an intelligent mind, and we conclude that the similar 
marks of design in the present case have probably pro- 



ANALOGY. 



55 



ceeded from a similar intelligent mind. Why do we 
say that the doctrine that all the great blessings of 
Christianity come to us through a Mediator is proba- 
bly true ? Simply because we have observed that 
in general whenever benefits of any kind have been 
conferred upon us by God they have been conferred 
through the instrumentality of a mediator, and we 
conclude that the method which the Most High has 
followed in all other cases he will probably follow in 
this case. 

We see, then, from these instances, that probability 
in a particular case is based upon its similarity to some 
other case in which we know with absolute certainty 
that the doctrine or principle in question is actually in- 
volved and carried out, and is therefore absolutely true ; 
or, in other words, probability in a particular case is 
based upon the analogy between this case and some 
other case, in which we know that the thing supposed 
probable in the case in question was in that case cer- 
tainly true. It is evident, then, that if we can estabhsh 
an analogy between two cases, one of which is known 
to be true, and the other is still undetermined, we have 
secured a basis for the assertion that what is known to 
be true in the one case is probably true in the other. 

If, now, we push our analysis still further and under- 
take to inquire why it is that similarity between an un- 
„ . . , . . settled case not as yet proved, and 

How it IS that similanty ^ 
or analogy shows prob- a known case thoroughly under- 
abiiity. This explained, g^ood, conduces to the probability 
of the former, I think we shall find that it is because 



56 BISHOP BUTLER. 

the certainty of the actual existence of the known case 
shows us that the truth of the unknown analogous 
case, which involves precisely similar principles, is pos- 
sible. 

The first effect of the argument from analogy, under 
the circumstances just described, is evidently to show 
that the assertion in question is possibly true. The de- 
termination of its possibility is the first step toward 
proving its probability. If we can show that a particu- 
lar doctrine, not as yet settled, is in principle exactly 
similar to a course of procedure which is admitted by 
all to be certainly true, we establish the possibility of 
the truth of the unsettled doctrine or principle in ques- 
tion. But, if a principle is possible^ this is the first step 
to its being probable. If it has ever been acted upon 
once, it is not unlikely that it may be acted upon again. 
If it has occurred once, why is it not likely that it may 
occur a second time ? The possibility of the principle in 
question is established by producing some one instance 
in which as a matter of fact it has been acted upon be- 
fore. That it has been acted upon once is a proof that 
there is no inherent impossibility in the case, and that 
therefore it may be acted upon again. If it has been 
acted upon more than once, this not only confirms 
its possibility but also creates a decided probability 
that it will occur again, a probability which is greatly 
increased by every additional instance, until finally it 
becomes converted into a settled conviction that we 
have here a universal principle, rule, or method of pro- 
cedure which will be acted upon always. 



ANALOGY. 



57 



And this is the conclusion that men invariably draw- 
in such cases, viewing this world simply as a vast ma- 
chine, all the parts of which move 
with precision and regularity, and 
without taking into consideration 
at all the notion of an author and 
creator of this machine and his at- 
tributes and character. But, if we 
take these also into consideration, 
the conclusion is greatly strength- 
ened. If the Most High has acted 
upon a certain principle once, this shows that he does 
not disapprove of the principle, at any rate ; and gives 
us reason to think that he has in truth deliberately se- 
lected it as a principle of action, and so creates the 
impression that he is very likely to act upon the same 
principle under similar circumstances another time. 
The Creator and governor of the world, as has been 
already intimated, must be consistent with himself, and 
can not in two different cases act upon principles so 
diverse as to indicate a diversity in his attributes and 
character at different periods. He must be the same 
at all times, and at all times act upon the same funda- 
mental principles. He can not act at different times 
upon opposite principles absolutely irreconcilable. He 
can not contradict himself. If, then, from observa- 
tion we discover that as a matter of fact he has acted 
upon certain definite principles in establishing the con- 
stitution and course of the natural world, it is evident 
that he can not, from his own unchangeable nature, act 



That similarity shows the 
probability of natural and 
revealed religion is true, 
viewing this world only 
as a vast machine, with- 
out taking its Creator and 
his attributes into con- 
sideration at all ; but if 
we take these in, this 
conclusion is greatly 
strengthened. This ex- 
plained. 



58 



BISHOP BUTLER. 



contradictory to these principles in the world of reve- 
lation, and in his special dealings with men. We are 
entitled, therefore, to infer, from the constitution and 
course of Nature, what the constitution and course of 
the world, made known by revelation, will be, or at 
any rate to assert that the principles of the one can 
not be contradictory to those of the other. And hence 
if an analogy or similarity can be shown to exist be- 
tween the doctrines of an alleged divine revelation 
made known to us, and the principles underlying the 
course of Nature under which we are living and which 
observation assures us of, we are justified in assert- 
ing that the former are probably true, because they 
are in conformity with the principles which the Au- 
thor of revelation has already acted upon in establish- 
ing the constitution of Nature. He can not deny him- 
self. 

It is evident, then, that if we can establish an anal- 
ogy between two cases of this sort, in regard to one of 
which we are thoroughly informed, and in regard to 
the other only partially, we have, for the two reasons 
just mentioned, viz., conformity with the constitution 
and course of Nature, and secondly the harmony of the 
divine character, secured a basis for the assertion that 
what is absolutely true in the one case is probably true 
in the other, and is therefore more likely to be true 
than not.* 



* In Dean Burgon's " Lives of Twelve Good Men," vol. ii, p. 325, a 
note is given from C. P. Eden to Dean Church, November 12, 1880, in which 
the following remark is made : " Did it ever occur to you that Butler's great 



ANALOGY. 



59 



Such is the method employed by Bishop Butler in 
the present treatise. He undertakes to trace an analogy 
between the doctrines of natural 

Similarity is, then, the 

basis of Bishop Butler's and revealed religion on the one 
argument, and he uses it hand, and the Constitution and 

to show that the various r xt r i i i 

doctrines of natural and coursc of Nature, or of the world 

revealed religion are more arOUnd US, On the Other, and prO- 
likely to be true than not. , , . i . ^ i • .^ 

His method of procedure ^^^ds to arguc that there IS noth- 
for each doctrine traced ing improbable about the former ; 

that, on the contrary, all the prob- 
abilities are in their favor, on account of the similarity 
between them and various facts in the constitution and 
course of Nature which we know are certainly true.* 
For instance, take the first doctrine of natural relig- 
ion, that there is a future state of existence for the 
soul of man after death : he argues that this doctrine 
has nothing improbable about it, but is more likely to 
be true than not, because we discover traces of a con- 
stitution exactly similar, existing in the world in which 
we live ; for, confessedly, the earthly life of every man 
is nothing but a succession of states, each of which 
is preparatory to, and intended to fit every man for, 
the one that immediately succeeds it. Why, then, 
should there not be a future state immediately suc- 
ceeding the present, and for which the present state 

argument in the * Analogy ' is exactly that of I Corinthians xv, 36 ? The case 
standing thus : 

" Objec. ' I can not swallow the notion of the resurrection of the body.* 
"Ans. 'Whatever becomes of your difficulty, I point out to you that God 
certainly does the like in Nature.' " 
* " Analogy," Part I. 



6o 



BISHOP BUTLER. 



is a direct preparation ? Passing- on to the second doc- 
trine of natural religion, viz., that God in this future 
state exercises a government over men, he shows that 
this is more likely to be true than not, because we find 
that in fact there is such a government carried on in 
the world around us at the present moment, and that 
this government is chiefly administered by rewards and 
punishments, and especially by the latter. He then 
proceeds to the third doctrine of natural religion, viz., 
that this government is a moral one — that is, that good 
acts are rewarded and evil acts punished as such — and 
shows that this doctrine is not antecedently improbable, 
but directly the reverse, because we find this very prin- 
ciple incorporated into God's present administration of 
human affairs. He then passes on to the fourth doc- 
trine of natural religion, viz., that the present state of 
man is a period of probation for that higher future 
state, and shows that this is extremely probable and 
more likely to be true than not, because it is in com- 
plete analogy with the present constitution of things, in 
which from the cradle to the grave man's present state 
is a probation for a future one coming on immediately 
after it. He then proceeds to show that this is not an 
arbitrary arrangement, but one intended to subserve a 
most important purpose, viz., that of disciplining and 
training men by the various trials, difficulties, and per- 
plexities of the present state for that higher future state, 
because this is in complete analogy with the evident 
purpose of God in his arrangement of man's present 
condition, in which every stage is eminently adapted to 



ANALOGY. 



6i 



fit him for a succeeding and higher stage, for which 
naturally he was altogether unfitted ; and that therefore 
this doctrine is for this reason not improbable, but, on 
the contrary, more likely to be true than not. 

Having in this manner passed in review the various 
doctrines of natural religion, and shown that, so far 
from being improbable, they, on the contrary, are all ex- 
tremely probable, our author next proceeds to apply 
the same method of arguing to revealed religion,* and 
shows, in the first place, that there is no improbability 
about the giving of a revelation, but that, on the con- 
trary, it is extremely probable that one would be given, 
on account of its importance, by reason of the analogy 
which he establishes with the present arrangement of 
things, in which we find that extraordinary benefits are 
frequently conferred upon men in order to meet ex- 
traordinary necessities. The fact of a revelation is, 
therefore, more credible than the reverse. Nor is there 
anything incredible in this revelation having miracles 
connected with it, because of the analogy which is 
proved to exist with the present constitution of things 
in which miracles are included ; for miracles equally 
extraordinary are found to exist in connection with the 
present constitution of things, and yet we never on this 
account suspect that the present constitution of things 
has not proceeded from an intelligent author. Nor is 
there anything incredible in this revelation containing 
many things which at first sight appear liable to objec- 



* "Analogy," Part II. 



62 



BISHOP BUTLER. 



tions, because similar objections can be raised against 
the present constitution of things ; and that this is espe- 
cially true if we consider that this revelation is of such a 
nature as necessarily, on account of its connection with 
the invisible world, to be imperfectly comprehended by 
men. Nor is there anything incredible about the ap- 
pointment of a Mediator, and the redemption of the 
world by the sufferings of an innocent person, because 
we find that this is in perfect agreement with the pres- 
ent arrangement of human affairs, in which we con- 
stantly find that the only way in which men in danger 
and distress can be extricated, rescued, and saved is by 
some one innocent man, or by several innocent men, in 
a state of peace and security, feeling compelled by a 
sense of duty to run the risk of losing their lives, and 
in some cases actually losing their lives, in the attempt 
to save them. Nor is there any incredibility arising 
from the want of universality in the giving of this 
revelation, or from long delay in giving it, or from 
supposed deficiencies in its proof, because the various 
blessings of men in the present constitution of things 
are not universally bestowed — have often, when be- 
stowed, been attended with much misapprehension — 
sometimes been even rejected, have won their way with 
difficulty, and even when received been misused and 
perverted to the injury of mankind ; and that the giving 
of them has also often been long delayed. 

And, finally, having in this manner proved that there 
is not only no antecedent improbability about the doc- 
trines of revelation, but that they are, on the contrary, 



ANALOGY. 



63 



in complete harmony with that constitution of Nature 
which confessedly has come from God, and therefore 
are, antecedently to all special evidence, probably true, 
our author next proceeds to an examination of the posi- 
tive evidence for the revelation in question — miraculous, 
prophetic, and historical — and shows, by analogy with 
other evidence upon which men have learned to rely in 
cases of similar importance, that this evidence can stand 
the application to it of the most severe tests for truth 
that the mind of man is capable of devising, and is, there- 
fore, perfectly reliable, and quite sufficient to prove that 
the Christian revelation has beyond all doubt come 
from Him who is the author of Nature ; and also that 
the force of this evidence is so overwhelming as to leave 
nothing whatever to be said on the other side. 

It will be readily seen, therefore, that by this process 
all the arguments directed against Christianity on the 
ground of its being improbable, 

Bishop Butler's argu- i .1 r • ^'^ ^ 

ment from analogy over, ^nd therefore incredible, are com- 
wheiming, and leaves pletely Swept away, and that the 

nothing whatever to be ^^^^^^ jg thrown altO- 

said on the other side. ^ 

gether upon the opposite side. Why 
should the doctrines of natural and revealed religion 
not be received, seeing there is no improbability about 
them, and that, on the contrary, antecedently to all evi- 
dence, every probability and every presumption are on 
their side ? It is evident that there is no reason ; and a 
very small amount of reliable positive evidence is suffi- 
cient to settle the question in their favor, and to estab- 
lish them upon an impregnable basis. 



64 



BISHOP BUTLER. 



The completeness and success with which this argu- 
ment does its work is that which has given to this 
treatise of Bishop Butler its world-wide celebrity, and 
secured for it a position in the estimation of intellectual 
men only excelled by the volume of inspiration itself. 
It is universally regarded not only as one of the most 
important bulwarks of the Christian faith against the 
attacks of disbelievers, but also as one of the most 
wholesome medicines ever provided for souls diseased 
with doubt, in virtue of which it has conferred priceless 
good upon multitudes of men of the highest intellect, in 
every age since it was written, and which it will con- 
tinue to confer upon every age until time shall be no 
more. 

Almost all the great men of our race who have lived 
since it was published have been glad to express their 
obligations to it, and of whatever shade of opinion have 
used very much the same eulogistic language in regard 
to its distinguished author. Not only ecclesiastical and 
academic dignitaries, philosophers, university profess- 
ors, and college fellows, but men of the world, royal 
personages, courtiers, noblemen, statesmen, cabinet min- 
isters, judicial functionaries, and lawyers have been 
eager to manifest their profound appreciation and en- 
thusiastic admiration of its great argument. Lord 
Brougham speaks of the ''Analogy" as "the most phil- 
osophical defense of Christianity ever submitted to the 
world." Cardinal Newman declares that " the study 
of the ' Analogy ' formed an era in his life." Dean Man- 
sel, of St. Paul's, says that " he felt that he would be 



ANALOGY, 65 

wanting to his duty to the university (Oxford) were 
he to hesitate to declare his deep-rooted and increasing 
conviction that sound religious philosophy will flourish 
or fade within her walls according as she preserves or 
neglects to study the works and cultivate the spirit of 
her great son and teacher, Bishop Butler." * Mr. Glad- 
stone states that he regards Bishop Butler as the 
greatest and most profound writer among the divines 
and prelates of the Church of England during many 
centuries ; that he personally owes to his works a debt 
which he can never repay, and that he cherishes the 
belief that the future will secure for him a degree of 
fame beyond even that which he has attained in the 
past."t 

Such is the language universally employed in regard 
to the " Analogy " and its author. 

It is emphatically one of those immortal works 
whose influence can be confined to no age, but which 
has been felt by every aefe, and 

The "Analogy "has con- . J J & ^ 

ferredpricelessgoodupon Will COntmue tO be felt by SUCCCSS- 

mankind for time and for jyC agCS forCVCr, not Only for the 
eternity. 

present state through which we are 
now passing, but also for the great future state to 
which we are all hastening, and which therefore may 
be regarded as imperishable. To how many human 
souls has it opened the way to light and to immortality 
— brought peace in this life, and imparted hope for the 
next ! 



* ** Preface to his Bampton Lectures," first edition, 
f Letter to the Dean of Bristol, August 9, 1884. 

5 



66 



BISHOP BUTLER. 



By proving that the doctrines of Christianity are 
more likely to be true than not, Bishop Butler has made 
them easier to be received and believed, and shown 
that there is no reason why men of the highest intellect 
should not be disposed to embrace them. This alone 
entitles him to the lasting gratitude of mankind. The 
" Analogy " is, in truth, a panacea for religious doubt, 
adapted to " all sorts and conditions of men," from the 
highest to the lowest in all ages ; and there never was a 
period when it was a matter of more importance than 
the present that a knowledge of its facts, its methods, 
and its arguments should be as widely diffused as pos- 
sible through all classes in society, and especially among 
educated and thoughtful men. 

But if the argument from analogy shows us the en- 
tire credibility and extreme probability of the doctrines 
^ of natural and revealed religion. 

The argument disposes of 

objections against natural and that they are more likely to 

and revealed religion even ^e true than not, and pointS OUt 
still more effectively. . . , . 

the Strong presumptions m their 
favor, on account of their conformity with the con- 
stitution and course of Nature, and also on account 
of the necessary harmony that must exist at all times 
and under all circumstances among the attributes of 
the great Creator who established this constitution, 
much more does it have the effect of removing objec- 
tions against the doctrines of natural and revealed 
religion. For is it not extremely probable that if we 
find certain apparent objections against the constitution 
and course of Nature in which we are living, and what 



ANALOGY. 



67 



seem to us to be defects in its working, we may also 
find the same objections and the same apparent defects 
in connection with the doctrines and working of nat- 
ural and revealed religion, provided we entertain the 
conviction that both have proceeded from the same 
intelligent mind and the same great Creator of all 
things ? May not these apparent defects and anomalies 
be regarded as the marks of his individuality and the 
stamps of his special action, authentications of his cre- 
atorship, which he affixes upon all his works as a proof 
of their common divine origin ? And, again, if this 
process be reversed, if we find upon examination cer- 
tain apparent objections to the system of natural and 
revealed religion which lead us to doubt if it came 
from the Creator of all things, and on further exami- 
nation discover the same objections apparent in that con- 
stitution and course of Nature which confessedly has 
proceeded from him, without their suggesting to us the 
slightest doubt of the divine origin of that constitution 
and course of Nature, does not this show us that the 
same objections raised against the facts of natural and 
revealed religion are equally inconclusive against their 
truth and divine origin also ? Take, for instance, the 
want of universality and of equality in the communi- 
cation of revelation to mankind — the fact that it has 
not been bestowed upon all men, nor equally upon 
them all — this want of universality and equality in con- 
ferring such an important gift has been urged as a 
proof that this revelation has not proceeded from the 
beneficent Creator and Governor of this world in which 



68 



BISHOP BUTLER. 



we live. But if, on the other hand, we discover the 
same want of universality and equality in his distribu- 
tion of equally inestimable gifts, in the present course 
of Nature in which we are living, such as the knowl- 
edge of important medicines like cinchona, or of won- 
derful anaesthetic agents like ether — that these have 
not been given to all mankind but only to a few, and, 
moreover, that instead of having been imparted at the 
creation of man, thereby obviating an enormous and 
incalculable amount of human misery, they have been 
long delayed, even for many thousand years, and indeed 
postponed to the present day, without creating the 
slightest suspicion on our part that they have not pro- 
ceeded from a wise and beneficent Creator, or awaken- 
ing any other feeling than that of profound gratitude 
to him for having given them to us at all, in his own 
time and manner — does not the same conclusion equally 
hold in reference to similar objections made against 
natural and revealed religion, and do not these objec- 
tions, therefore, equally fall to the ground ? 

Now, this removal of objections is the second use 
to which Bishop Butler puts the argument from anal- 
ogy. First, he uses it to establish the credibility and 
probability of the doctrines of natural and revealed 
religion, and to prove that they are more likely to be 
true than not ; and, secondly, he makes use of it to 
remove the objections that may be raised against these 
doctrines, and to show that these objections have no 
foundation whatever on which to stand, and all fall 
to the ground together. 



ANALOGY. 



69 



The argument from analogy is, then, a double- 
bladed weapon : positively, by showing in the most con- 
clusive manner possibility, credibility, and probability ; 
and, negatively, by proving with equal clearness that all 
the objections against this possibility, credibility, and 
probability amount to nothing, and are deserving of no 
consideration. 

But the argument from analogy is not simply im- 
portant in the way of establishing the probability of 
^, , the doctrines of natural and re- 

The argument from anal- 
ogy not only establishes vcalcd religion, and removing ob- 

probability and removes 'e^tions tO their divinC Origin, but 
objections, but also pro- 

duces positive religious is also of the greatest possible 
convictions. value in the way of predisposing 

the mind heartily to embrace and to hold fast the 
truths which they make known, and inducing us to 
adopt the rules which they teach and the principles 
which they enforce as the guide of our lives. If the 
knowledge conveyed to us by natural and revealed 
religion have every probability in its favor without a 
particle of opposing evidence whatever on the other 
side ; or, if there be merely a balance of probability in 
its favor, which overweighs all the evidence, however 
great, of a contrary nature on the other side, does not 
this probability throw upon us an obligation heartily 
to receive this knowledge, to embrace it gladly, to 
appropriate it, to live with reference to it, to obey it, 
and to make it the rule of our lives ? If the existence 
of a future state of happiness or misery, and if our 
actual assignment to one or the other be really the re- 



70 BISHOP BUTLER. 

suit of our present lives, and the natural and inevitable 
consequence of our daily course of conduct ; and if 
the existence of a future judgment that is to take cog- 
nizance of our most secret thoughts and of our most 
subtile inclinations, as well as of our words and of our 
acts, be more likely to be true than not, and extremely 
probable from analogy alone, even without the consid- 
eration of the positive evidence derived from the ex- 
press statements of revealed religion, does not this 
probability throw upon us an obligation to live day 
by day with reference to these awful realities, nearly as 
great as if they had been made evident to us with the 
certainty of mathematical demonstration, and does not 
the argument from analogy in this case clearly put us 
under a strict obligation to lead lives of conformity to 
these great truths, and tend to make us actively re- 
ligious men ? 

If the doctrine of the mediation of Christ (including 
as it does his continued oblation,"^ his present interces- 
sion, and unceasing advocacy for the forgiveness of the 
sins of individual men based upon that oblation, as a 
priest upon his throne "f on "the right hand of the 
throne of the Majesty in the heavens " :|:), be more likely 
to be true than not, from its analogy to the present con- 
stitution and course of Nature, does not this proba- 
bility throw upon us, who are in the outer court of 
the Christian tabernacle, the obligation of constantly 
thinking upon these great invisible realities, and these 



* I Timothy ii, 5, 6 ; Hebrews viii, 2, 3. 

f Zechariah vi, 13. % Hebrews viii, i. 



ANALOGY. 



mighty operations now proceeding on the other side 
of the veil of the heavens, and of addressing ourselves, 
with sincere repentance, in humble prayer, and with 
importunate supplications, to this great advocate ? And 
does not this practice of constant prayer and supplica- 
tion to him as Mediator, founded upon the probabili- 
ties in question, tend to cultivate in us the power and 
practical ability to conceive clearly and distinctly of 
this glorious and invisible Mediator, and these mighty 
operations ; and to form a habit of constantly using this 
power, so as to be disposed to take in other great 
spiritual realities, and to live in a higher and more ex- 
alted sphere, raised above a mere material life — that 
is, to lead an active religious life, engaging our affec- 
tions and our hearts, full of faith, devotion, and love ? 

We see, then, that the argument from analogy tends 
to accomplish much more than to win our cold assent 
to a collection of barren probabilities, and really seeks 
to push us forward to the leading of lives of ardent 
obedience, loyalty, and faith, directed toward the great 
Creator of man, and to the Mediator that stands be- 
tween him and men. This is the use to which Bishop 
Butler pushes the argument from analogy in nearly 
every chapter. He would have us see that it presses 
us on to an active faith leading to obedience and good 
works. 

All these profound arguments and far-reaching con- 
His arguments are ex- clusions are, moreover, expressed 



pressed in forcible and 
carefully selected lan- 
guage. 



in language singularly well adapted 
to their character — language at once 



BISHOP BUTLER. 



simple, clear, and dignified, formed into a style of sus- 
tained power and impressiveness. True, fault has 
been found with some of his expressions as antiquated, 
his words as obsolete, and his thoughts as obscure. 
The last of these objections arises from the depth of 
the subject, and from the difficulty in following him, 
that is felt by many uneducated persons, which they are 
apt to fancy springs from obscurity and not from the in- 
herent difficulty of the subject. The two former objec- 
tions of antiquated and obsolete expressions will equally 
well apply to Shakespeare, to Bacon, and to Milton. 
Let any one, however, sit down to the work of improv- 
ing its statements by substituting as he supposes better 
selected language, and he will quickly find that he has 
undertaken a very difficult task. Bishop Butler had an 
important reason for employing very general instead 
of exact and particular expressions, in that he did not 
wish to encumber himself with special theories involved 
in such expressions, whose adoption would create oppo- 
sition, and narrow the field of influence which his work 
might otherwise secure. He frequently understates his 
argument in order to avert opposition, sometimes argu- 
ing upon the principles of others and not his own, and 
proving his point not from these principles, but not- 
withstanding them — omitting what he thinks true, and 
of the utmost importance, because by others thought 
unintelligible or untrue." 



The London " Quarter- 
ly" on Bishop Butlers 
language and style. 



A contributor to the London 
Quarterly Review " (1828) writes 
thus of this wonderful work : " Now 



ANALOGY. 73 

Bishop Butler sent forth his wonderful * Analogy ' 
— a work too thoughtful for the flippant taste 
of the skeptical school, and, indeed, only to be duly 
appreciated after much and painful meditation. It 
is not a short line that will fathom Butler. Let a 
hundred readers sit down to the examination of the 
* Analogy,' and however various the associations of 
thought excited in their minds by the perusal, whether 
as objections or otherwise, they will find on exami- 
nation that Butler has been beforehand with them all. 
This may not at first strike them. Often it will dis- 
cover itself in a point overlooked perhaps in a first 
reading, dropped by Butler in the profusion of his 
matter, as it were, to show that he was aware of what 
might be said, but that he had better game on foot ; 
and still more often will it be traced in the caution 
with which he selects an expression, not perhaps the 
obvious expression — such indeed as to a superficial 
reader may seem an unaccountable circumlocution, 
or an ungraceful stiffness of language. In all these 
cases he is evidently glancing at an argument, or par- 
rying an objection of some kind or another that had 
been lurking about him — objections and arguments 
which may sometimes present themselves to us at once, 
but which very frequently are latent till the under-cur- 
rent of our thoughts happens to set in with Butler's and 
throws them up. We have always suspected that such 
critics knew very little about the * Analogy.' We 
would have no sacrilegious hand touch it. It would be 
like officious meddling with a well-considered move at 



74 



BISHOP BUTLER. 



chess. We should change a word in it with the caution 
of men expounding hieroglyphics — it has a meaning, 
but we have not hit upon it — others may, or we our- 
selves may at another time. The * Analogy ' is a work 
carefully and closely packed up out of twenty years' 
hard thinking. It must have filled folios had its illus- 
trious author taken less time to concoct it, for never 
was there a stronger instance of the truth of the ob- 
servation that it requires far more time to make a small 
book than a large one. For ourselves, whether we 
consider it as directly corroborative of the scheme of 
Christianity, by showing its consistency with natural 
religion (the constitution and course of Nature), or 
whether, which is perhaps its most important aspect, as 
an answer to those objections which may be brought 
against Christianity, arising out of the difficulties in- 
volved in it, we look upon the * Analogy ' of Bishop 
Butler as the work above all others on which the mind 
can repose with the most entire satisfaction, and faith 
found itself as on a rock."* 

And not only is his style always dignified and im- 
pressive, but it not unfrequently rises to a lofty elo- 
^ , , quence. In proof of this statement, 

His arguments eloquent- ^ ^ 

ly expressed. Various pas- I wiU citC the closing paSSagCS of 

sages quoted. ^j^^ sccond chapter of Part I, on 

the " Government of God by Rewards and Punishments, 
and particularly of the latter " ; and also a splendid 
passage in the fifth chapter of Part I, in which, assum- 



* " Quarterly Review," vol. xxxviii, p. 307. 



ANALOGY, 75 

ing that the invisible world is analogous to the visible, 
and that both together make up one uniform scheme, 
the two parts of which — the part which we see and that 
which is beyond our observation — are analogous to 
each other, the author goes on to show that there must 
be a natural tendency for derived power throughout 
the universe under the direction of virtue to prevail 
over that which is not under its direction. " Virtue," 
he says — " to borrow the Christian allusion — is militant 
here, and various untoward accidents contribute to its 
being often overcome, but it may combat with greater 
advantage hereafter and prevail completely, and enjoy 
its consequent rewards in some future state. Neglected 
as it is, perhaps unknown, perhaps despised and op- 
pressed here, there may be scenes in eternity lasting 
enough, and in every other way adapted to afford it a 
sufficient sphere of action, and a sufficient sphere for 
the natural consequences of it to follow in fact. If the 
soul be naturally immortal, and this state be a progress 
toward a future one, as childhood is toward mature 
age, good men may naturally unite not only among 
themselves, but also with other orders of virtuous creat- 
ures in that future state." * And so he proceeds in an 
elevated strain descriptive of the triumph of virtue in 
that future state, which may justly be placed in the 
highest rank of eloquence, fully equaled by a subse- 
quent passage beginning with the words, " But let us 
return to the earth our habitation," in which the tri- 



" Analogy," Part I, chap. iii. 



76 



BISHOP BUTLER. 



umphs of virtue on earth are delineated. It is in the 
former of these two passages that occur the famous 
words which are thought by Dean Plumptre and Canon 
Farrar to intimate that Butler leaned toward the doc- 
trine of a future probation after death (though this con- 
clusion by no means follows from his language), where 
among the triumphs of virtue he speaks of it as being 
from its very nature " a principle and bond of union, 
in some degree among all who are endued with it and 
known to each other, so as that by it a good man can not 
but recommend himself to the favor and protection of 
all virtuous beings throughout the whole universe, who 
can be acquainted with his character, and can in any 
way interpose in his behalf in any part of his duration. 
And one might add that, suppose all this advantageous 
tendency of virtue to become effect among one or more 
orders of creatures, in any distant scenes and periods, 
and to have been seen by any orders of vicious creatures 
throughout the universal kingdom of God, this happy 
effect of virtue would have a tendency by way of ex- 
ample, and possibly in other ways, to amend those who 
are capable of amendment, and, being recovered, to a 
just sense of virtue." 

Other passages of nearly equal beauty and force may 
be found in every chapter. The following is one of 
them : " Thus much is manifest, that the whole natural 
world and the government of it is a scheme, or system, 
not a fixed but a progressive one ; a scheme in which 
the operation of various means takes up a great length 
of time before the ends they tend to can be attained. 



ANALOGY. 

The change of seasons, the ripening of the fruits of the 
earth, the very history of a flower, is an instance of this, 
and so is human life. Thus vegetable bodies, and those 
of animals, though possibly formed at once, yet grow 
up by degrees to a mature state. And thus rational 
agents who animate these latter bodies are naturally 
directed to form, each his own manners and character, 
by the gradual gaining of knowledge and experience 
and by a long course of action. Our existence is not 
only successive, as it must be of necessity, but one state 
of our life and being is appointed by God to be a prep- 
aration for another, and that to be the means of attain- 
ing to another succeeding one — infancy to childhood, 
childhood to youth, youth to mature age. Men are 
impatient and for precipitating things, but the Author of 
Nature appears deliberate throughout his operations, 
accomplishing his natural ends by slow and successive 
steps. And there is a plan of things beforehand laid 
out, which from the nature of it requires various sys- 
tems of means, as well as lengths of time, in order to 
the carrying on its several parts into execution. Thus, 
in the daily course of natural providence, God operates 
in the very same manner as in the dispensation of Chris- 
tianity, making one thing subservient to another ; this 
to somewhat further, and so on through a progressive 
series of means, which extend both backward and for- 
ward beyond our utmost view."* 

Another special point of excellence possessed by 



* "Analogy," Part II, chap. iv. 



78 



BISHOP BUTLER. 



Bishop Butler's argu- this argument of Bishop Butler is 

ment is cumulative : addi- 1.1 x . 

tional instances strength- its Cumulative character. It IS not 
ening, while their remov- simply One casc of analogy, or of 

al does not weaken, it. • m v i • i ^1 i 

Similarity, upon which the conclu- 
sion is made to depend, and which if destroyed or 
invalidated completely destroys or invalidates the 
conclusion, so that the entire analogical argument 
falls to the ground. It is a great accumulation of 
analogies, each one of which if sustained is abun- 
dantly sufficient to support the conclusion, while every 
additional analogy that is sustained proportionably 
strengthens that conclusion. At the same time, it is an 
argument from which analogy after analogy may be 
thrown out as inconclusive, without thereby impairing 
the validity of the reasoning or weakening conviction. 
So wonderfully distinct and yet so closely woven to- 
gether are these analogies, that though each addi- 
tional analogy proved adds immensely to the solidity 
of the foundation on which the superstructure re- 
poses, yet analogy after analogy may be disproved, 
and instance after instance thrown out, without dan- 
ger to the argument, so long as one single analogy 
holds good ; and the very last shred of this single 
analogy must be removed before the argument from 
analogy can be overthrown, or even seriously weak- 
ened. 

And, even though this very last shred should be re- 
moved, no serious damage would 

The last shred of the ar- , . ^ 1 1 rr r 1 • 

gument from analogy may ^6 done, for the Only effect of thlS 

be removed and no seri- wOuld be tO leave US confronting 



ANALOGY, yg 

ous damage done. This the positive evidence in the case ^ — 

is a very great advantage. ^^^^ ^^f^ ^5 

we were 

before the argument from analogy was presented. The 
only design of that argument was to facilitate the re- 
ception of the positive evidence ready to be pro- 
duced : this facilitation has been rendered null and 
void, perhaps altogether destroyed, but the positive 
evidence remains unshaken and possessed of undimin- 
ished power, and we are therefore no worse off than 
we were before the argument from analogy was con- 
structed. In other words, while the arguments from 
analogy, if they are admitted to be conclusive, im- 
mensely strengthen the doctrines of natural and re- 
vealed religion by making it easier for men to believe 
them than before, yet if these arguments are wholly 
swept away — as natural and revealed religion do not 
depend upon them for their truth, but upon the positive 
evidence in the case — their foundation is not one whit 
shaken, but is exactly just what it was before the argu- 
ment from analogy was presented. 

An additional advantage of Bishop Butler's method 
is, that it is susceptible of almost unlimited extension. 
Bishop Butler's argument ^e has himself traced out a very 
susceptible of indefinite large number of most interesting 

extension. We can carry , . , , . -i x 

it much further than he analogies between the truths of 
could. This proved by religion natural and revealed and 

analogies from modem ^j^^ constitution and COUrSC of Na- 
science, especially m re- 
gard to the restoration of turc, and in doing it has manifested 
decayed races. ^ wonderfully minute acquaintance 



* See page 41. 



8o 



BISHOP BUTLER. 



with the scientific knowledge of the constitution and 
course of Nature, that was possessed by men in the 
age in which he lived, and with singular insight and 
sagacity has anticipated many scientific discoveries 
which had not then been made, and for which he 
clearly saw that the earlier discoveries had prepared 
the way. Since his day, as science has progressed, 
the knowledge that we possess of the constitution 
and course of Nature has been greatly enlarged, and 
the number of analogies that can be traced between 
this constitution and the doctrines of religion have 
been proportionably increased. We can push the 
argument from analogy much further than its author 
was able to push it, and derive from the remarkable 
points of analogy that modern scientific knowledge has 
informed us of, many more convincing proofs that 
the doctrines of religion, both natural and revealed, 
are more likely to be true than not, than he could. 

Take, for instance, the great doctrine of revealed 
religion that the human race has been redeemed and 
regenerated by the introduction into it of a perfectly 
holy man — the second man — and that by a direct or- 
ganic connection made supernaturally between us and 
this perfect second man, that virtue and that principle 
of good are derived by us which are needed to counter- 
act the evil tendencies that we have naturally inherited 
from the first man — this cardinal doctrine of revealed 
religion is rendered much more likely to be true than 
not by the remarkable analogy that exists between it 
and the observations that have been made since Bishop 



ANALOGY. 



8i 



Butler's day by the most distinguished modern natural- 
ists, who have shown very conclusively that there is 
no way in which a race of animals or plants, in case it 
has degenerated, is ever in fact restored, or improved, 
except by the introduction into it of some superior 
new member, and establishing an organic connection 
between him and every member of the deteriorated or 
unimproved race. This seems to be a principle in- 
wrought into the constitution of races of beings whose 
life and characteristics have been derived from those 
who have preceded them. There must be, in the first 
place, some superior new member introduced into the 
race ; and then, in the second place, some special means 
provided for establishing a connection between him and 
every member of the deteriorated or unimproved race 
he has come to renovate. When, then, we are assured, 
in the first place, by revelation that our Lord is the 
second man — the perfect and holy man — the new head 
introduced into the human race for the purpose of re- 
deeming, raising up, and sanctifying it, so as to make it 
holy ; and, in the second place, that the two sacraments 
of baptism and the holy eucharist have been provided 
as means for establishing a supernatural organic con- 
nection between us and him, these doctrines seem much 
more likely to be true than not, on account of their 
perfect and complete analogy with some of the best- 
established facts of modern science. Thus, the march 
of science has placed in our hands the means of carry- 
ing out the bishop's argument in a much more convinc- 
ing manner than was possible in the age in which it was 
6 



82 



BISHOP BUTLER. 



introduced into the world. Not only, therefore, is the 
argument from analogy cumulative in the ordinary 
sense, in reference to the use its author made of all the 
scientific knowledge that was possessed in the age in 
which he lived, but is also cumulative in reference to 
the additions that may be made to his argument from 
the new discoveries that have been achieved since his 
time, and also in reference to the additions which are 
likely to be made to it from the fresh knowledge which 
is constantly placed at our command by the daily ad- 
vance of science, and which will continue to be placed 
until the end of time. 

Additional analogies of a similar kind, in support of 
other doctrines of the Faith, may be drawn from every 
Similar analogies may be quarter. Take, for instance, the 

drawn from every quar- great prophecy of the dissolution 

of the heavens and the earth, and 
the coming of new heavens and a new earth, uttered 
by St. Peter, where he says, " The heavens and the 
earth which are now, are kept in store, reserved unto 
fire against the day of judgment and perdition of un- 
godly men."* And again: The heavens shall pass 
away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt 
with fervent heat ; the earth and the works that are 
therein shall be burned up."t And again, ''Never- 
theless we, according to his promise, look for new 
heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteous- 
ness." ^ Is not this prophetic statement rendered 



* 2 Peter iii, 7. 



f 2 Peter iii, 10. 



X 2 Peter iii, 13. 



ANALOGY. 83 

much more likely to be true than not by the remark- 
able analogy that exists between it and the scientific 
conclusions that geologists have reached, in regard 
to the past history of the earth ? Thus, we know 
from the examination of the earth's crust that it has 
already undergone a succession of catastrophes pro- 
duced by the violent action of internal igneous forces, 
each of which has resulted in completely dislocating the 
entire series of its strata, and destroying all the vege- 
table and animal life which had previously existed upon 
its surface. We also know, from the phenomena of 
volcanoes and earthquakes, that the same igneous forces 
are still in operation, and upon occasion may break 
forth with irresistible fury.* Now, do not these great 
catastrophes produced by fire, which have followed, 
after long intervals, one after another successively with- 
out cessation since the world began, create a very 
strong conviction that it is more likely to be true than 
not that in the future there may be another great catas- 
trophe produced by fire, the result of which will be the 
demolition of everything that imparts to the earth its 
present aspect, and attended by the complete destruc- 
tion of all the plants and animals, together with all the 
works of man, that now exist upon it ? And do not 
these facts in the constitution and course of Nature tend 
to confirm very powerfully the general statements of 
the Christian revelation as to the future history of our 
planet, and of the human race ? 



* Vide the explosions of Krakatoa in the Indian Ocean, in 1883 and 1884. 



84 



BISHOP BUTLER. 



And inasmuch as every past catastrophe has been fol- 
lowed by the subsidence of these fiery convulsions, and 
by the apparition from the chaos of new heavens and a 
new earth, by the restoration of stability and tranquillity, 
and by the introduction of higher forms of vegetable 
and animal life, do not these great facts in the present 
constitution and course of Nature make the teaching of 
Holy Scripture on this subject, that there shall be new 
heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteous- 
ness " — that is, inhabited by a race of righteous beings 
superior to those who had preceded them — more likely 
to be true than not ? 

And again, as the destruction of all the preceding 
varieties and races of plants and animals, by each of 
these successive catastrophes, has uniformly been fol- 
lowed, when tranquillity has been re-established, either 
by the introduction upon the earth of new plants and 
new animals entirely different from all that had preceded 
them, involving as it were a new design, as was the case 
in the early geological periods, or else, as in the later 
and most recent geological periods, by the reintroduc- 
tion of the old types of plants and animals constructed 
upon the same plans as before, but with more highly 
developed, refined, and beautiful external forms* — do 
not these- well-ascertained facts in the present constitu- 
tion and course of Nature make it possible and more 
likely to be true than not that this earth, after the great 
catastrophe by which, as St. Peter assures us, the pres- 

* Dana, " Text-Book of Geology." 



ANALOGY. 85 

ent crust will be destroyed — will be inhabited by intel- 
ligent creatures of the same constitution as before, but 
possessed of vastly more highly developed and beauti- 
ful external forms and corporeal characteristics, and do 
not these facts, in the present constitution and course 
of Nature, tend very powerfully, on the whole, to make 
it more likely to be true than not that the spirits of 
just men made perfect will be endowed once more with 
bodies more glorious than those which they had pre- 
viously inhabited (spiritual bodies), and then be rein- 
troduced upon the earth as their future dwelling-place,* 
now made fit for the residence of man's perfected and 
renovated spirit, and that thus a new earthly state will 
be created " wherein dwelleth righteousness " ? And 
do the Holy Scriptures tell us anything more, touching 
this great subject, than what we have reason to think 
possible and probable from the facts of the present con- 
stitution and course of Nature ? 

And again, if it be true, as it most certainly is, and 
as Bishop Butler has clearly stated, that " every species 
of creatures is designed for a particular way of life, to 
which the nature, the capacities, temper, and qualifica- 
tions of each species are as necessary as their external 
circumstances, that both come into the notion of such 
states or particular way of life, and are constituent 
parts of it, so that if a man's capacities or character be 
changed to the degree in which it is conceivable they 
may be changed, and he would be altogether incapable 

* That the area of the earth will be sufficient for this purpose has repeat- 
edly been proved. 



86 



BISHOP BUTLER. 



of a human course of life and human happiness ; as in- 
capable as if, his nature continuing unchanged, he were 
placed in a world where he had no sphere of action, 
nor any objects to answer to his appetites, passions, and 
affections of any sort. Our nature corresponds to our 
external condition. Without this correspondence there 
would be no such thing as human life and human hap- 
piness, which life and happiness are therefore a result 
from our nature and condition jointly. So that, without 
determining what will be the employment and happi- 
ness, the particular life of good men hereafter, there 
must be some determinate capacities, some necessary 
character and qualifications, without which persons can 
not but be utterly incapable of it; in like manner as 
there must be some, without which men would be in- 
capable of their present state of life." * Do not these 
clearly recognized facts of the present constitution and 
course of Nature make it much more likely to be true 
than not that there must be an adaptation of man's 
nature to the improved circumstances of the new heav- 
ens and the new earth that are to be, ^' wherein dwell- 
eth righteousness"; that none but the righteous can 
be happy in it, none but they can be introduced into 
it; and that therefore there must be a public selec- 
tion made out of the great mass of human souls, of 
those who possess the moral and spiritual qualifications 
necessary for this state, and that a permanent separation 
of the two great classes of men, the righteous and the 



* " Analogy," Part I, chap. v. 



ANALOGY. 



87 



unrighteous, must be effected by the removal of the for- 
mer to this new abode ; and does not this tend to make 
the great doctrine of a future judgment simultaneous 
with the formation of the new heavens and the new 
earth more likely to be true than not, and indeed to be 
inferred from the present circumstances in which we 
are placed ? 

And, finally, as a part of the same system of analo- 
gies, does not the fact of the existence of punishment 
for wrong-doing in the present constitution and course 
of Nature in which we are living, confirm the doctrine 
of the Faith that there is to be punishment for wrong- 
doing in the future life? And does not the fact that 
this punishment is often in the present constitution and 
course of Nature final, so that all possibility of happi- 
ness in the present state is forever destroyed, make it 
more likely to be true than not that punishment in the 
future life may be final, and that all possibility of hap- 
piness in that future life may be forever destroyed ? It 
is very evident that the closer scrutiny of the ordinary 
facts of our present existence that has been made since 
Bishop Butler's day, and also the discovery of new 
scientific facts, have brought these striking analogies 
confirmatory of the doctrines of Christianity out into 
a very much clearer light. 

And not only is all that has just been stated true, but 
may we not go one step further, and say that by this 
method of argumentation some of 

Bishop Butler's argument , , . r ^1 . • 

anticipatory, and enables ^hc doctrmcs of Christianity may 
one to predict what a re- even be anticipated ? For instance, 



88 



BISHOP BUTLER, 



vealed religion would if we had never been informed by 
probably be. revelation of the particular doc- 

trine already mentioned,* viz., the regeneration of the 
human race by the introduction into it of a perfect 
second man, the Son of God, who for this purpose took 
human nature and became partaker of our flesh and 
blood," t might we not, nevertheless, from these well- 
settled facts of scientific observation that have been 
stated, venture to predict, with all due reverence be it 
spoken, that the method adopted by the Most High for 
redeeming and sanctifying a fallen race would proba- 
bly be this very one, which revelation has informed us 
he did adopt, viz., by introducing a new and perfect 
member into the human family, and that there would 
probably be means provided like the sacraments for es- 
tablishing an organic connection between them and him ? 
That is, the range of human knowledge has become so 
extensive as to justify us in believing that by induction 
from the facts of daily observation in the course of this 
world's affairs, we can arrive at the principles of human 
life established by the Most High for the existence of 
man on earth, and that these principles thus established 
are more likely than not to be the principles that will 
be acted upon by him for the purpose of accomplishing 
similar ends in the world of spirit, and that this will 
justify us, with all humility be it spoken, in predicting 
how these ends will probably be accomplished. That 
is to say, what God is doing in fact around us now. 



* Pp. 80, 81. 



f Hebrews ii, 14. 



ANALOGY, 89 

may be taken as an indication, to a certain extent, of 
what his preferences are, and of the general courses he 
will be inclined to take in accomplishing similar pur- 
poses in the future in the world of spirit. 

This anticipatory method might be applied to other 
doctrines as well as to the one just mentioned. 

For instance, if the future destruction of the present 
order of things upon the earth by fire, including the 
plants and animals then existing 

Additional illustrations. ^ ^ 

upon it, be more likely to be true 
than not, from the geological considerations that have 
already been adduced, and this be recognized as one 
of the future facts that are to occur in the history of 
this world, then does it not follow that if man's life 
is to be continued he would probably be withdrawn 
from this earth, and be placed in some higher state, 
some immaterial or spiritual state, for safe keeping, 
and does not this make the doctrine of an intermediate 
state more likely to be true than not — an intermediate 
state in which the spirits of men may rest in peace 
until this catastrophe has been completed ; and is it not 
much more likely to be true than not that they will be 
introduced individually into this state, singly, one by 
one, as they are introduced into the present state, gen- 
eration after generation, than in one great multitude 
just previous to the catastrophe, as we are told that 
some will be when they are caught up, as it were, on 
the very day of its occurrence, to meet the Lord in 
the air? 

And may we not justly argue, in reference to the cir- 



90 



BISHOP BUTLER. 



cumstances of this intermediate state, that its leading 
characteristic must be repose, or rather a state of patient 
waiting for the great event that is to restore them to the 
earth reconstructed for their abode ? Does not the fact 
that men will then be relieved of their bodies, and no 
longer be obliged to devote the chief part of their atten- 
tion to their own material support and that of other per- 
sons, and to doing their part in the complicated scheme 
of man's earthly life, show very clearly that they will 
probably be freed from the restless physical activity 
that is necessary here, and that they will have scope and 
ability for a more intense moral and intellectual activity 
there ? 

May we not also safely argue, from the nature of 
man's life on earth, that the life of the intermediate 
state, being as it is a continuation of the present life, 
must be a social and not a solitary life ? Are we to sup- 
pose that the countless multitudes of human souls who 
have entered into that state, and who have previously 
lived as members of a social state, and in the closest in- 
tercourse with each other, have been suddenly trans- 
ferred to an isolated and unsocial state, in which they 
are leading solitary lives, and where they have no 
communication whatever with other human souls in the 
same state, without sympathy, without communion, and 
existing as it were in a passive condition? The pres- 
ent life of man, and the circumstances in which he is 
placed here, as well as the indelible characteristics of 
his own nature, forbid such a supposition, and enable 
us to predict that the future intermediate state, as well 



ANALOGY. 91 

as the heavenly state that is to succeed the judgment, 
must be an eminently social state. 

But if it be a social state, does not our experience of 
what is ingrained into human existence here show us 
very conclusively that there must be some classification, 
arrangement, and orderly placing in that future state — 
something corresponding to the groupings into families, 
societies, nations, and races, that exist here ? And inas- 
much as in this world we are placed in the special 
family, society, nation, and race in which we find our- 
selves, by God himself, without any volition on our own 
part, having our relations to other men largely deter- 
mined for us, is it not probable, and more likely to be 
true than not, that the same will be the case there ? And 
in determining with what particular human beings our 
closest relations will be established, is it not much more 
likely to be true than not that the same general princi- 
ples will be followed as have been followed in placing 
us in the present state ; and that consequently, when we 
enter Paradise, we shall not be ushered in there as total 
strangers, but be introduced into the same family life, 
and into the same close relationships and the same 
general associations, as we have been placed in by 
the Most High in our present state, and find our kin- 
dred, relations, and friends ready to receive us? Will 
not the same sympathies exist there as here? And if 
brought into such close relations with others, will not 
the same virtues of justice, veracity, charity, patience, 
self-command, self-denial, and forbearance be required 
of us as are required here, with the virtuous habits 



92 BISHOP BUTLER. 

leading to their constant exercise which are demanded 
here ? 

" Nothing," says Bishop Butler, " which we at pres- 
ent see, would lead to the thought of a solitary inactive 
state hereafter; but if we judge at all from the analogy 
of Nature, we must suppose, according to the Scripture 
account of it, that it will be a community, and there is 
no shadow of anything unreasonable in conceiving, 
though there be no analogy for it, that this community 
will be, as the Scripture represents it, under the more 
immediate, or, if such an expression may be used, the 
more sensible government of God. Nor is our igno- 
rance what will be the employments of this happy com- 
munity, nor our consequent ignorance, what particular 
scope or occasion there will be for the exercise of ve- 
racity, justice, and charity, among the members of it, with 
regard to each other, any proof that there will be no 
sphere of exercise for these virtues. Much less, if that 
were possible, is our ignorance any proof that there 
will be no occasion for that frame of mind, or character, 
which is formed b}^ the daily practice of those particular 
virtues here, and which is a result from it. This, at 
least, must be owned in general, that as the government 
established in the universe is moral, the character of vir- 
tue and piety must in some way or other be the condi- 
tion of our happiness or the qualification for it." * 

And again, inasmuch as life consists in incessant 
mental and moral action, so that life can not be life with- 



•* Analogy," Part I, chap. v. sec. iv. 



ANALOGY. 93 

out the employment of every faculty, and the develop- 
ment of every capacity, is it not much more likely to be 
true than not that the future life, both in the intermedi- 
ate and in the heavenly state that is to succeed it, while 
free from anxiety, and therefore a state of repose and 
tranquillity, is nevertheless not to be a passive, inactive, 
and inert existence, but one of even more intense moral 
and mental activity than the present ? The actual facts 
of our daily life in this world, prove to us very plainly 
that all the probabilities are in favor of the future life 
being a social and active instead of a solitary and inact- 
ive state, and of our sympathetic and social affections 
and attachments being- very much more intense and vehe- 
ment there than they are here. Nay, more, may not at- 
tachments, sympathies, and affections be there formed 
even with other orders of beings, and may not therefore 
the language of Bishop Butler, already quoted * — If 
the soul be naturally immortal, and this state be a prog- 
ress toward a future one, as childhood is toward ma- 
ture age, good men may naturally unite not only among 
themselves, but also with other orders of virtuous 
creatures in the future state " — be literally true ? And 
thus, as has been already stated, may not what God is 
doing around us now be taken as an indication of the gen- 
eral courses he will be inclined to take in accomplish- 
ing similar purposes in the future in the world of spirit, 
and fully justify us, within certain limits, in predicting 
what will probably be the case in the world hereafter? 



"Analogy," Part I, chap, iii, sec. v. 



94 BISHOP BUTLER. 

It is very interesting to observe that Bishop Butler 
himself has, in one instance, if not in many others, taken 
Bishop Butler himself has this Step forward SO as to infer the 
ventured to take this step existence of Certain principles by 
forward. induction from the present and 

from the past, and then from these principles predict 
the future. In general, his method is simply to support 
the positive assertions of natural atid revealed religion by 
analogies drawn from the present ; but in the fifth 
chapter of the second part, in which he discusses the 
doctrine of the mediation of Christ, he reasons from 
the present to the future, in the manner just de- 
scribed. Having established the fact that punishment 
here takes place in the way of natural consequence, 
he infers that it will take place in the same way in 
the future state. Having detected, from his observa- 
tion of what is going on around us, that there is such 
a thing as compassion in Nature, so that provision 
has been made for preventing all the ruinous conse- 
quences of evil-doing from inevitably following here, he 
then proceeds to infer from this present state of things 
that the principle of compassion may also have a place 
there. With these inferred probabilities he then pro- 
ceeds to show that the actual facts of revelation exactly 
agree. In this instance he has undertaken to forecast 
the future from the present, instead of simply support- 
ing the present by analogies from the past, thereby in- 
dicating the course which his insight pointed out to 
him, his method of argumentation legitimately allowed. 

He says himself, in his introduction to the " Analogy : 



ANALOGY. 95 

" It is allowed just to join abstract reasonings with the 
observation of facts, and argue from such facts as are 
known to others that are like them ; from that part of the 
divine government over intelligent creatures, which comes 
under our view, to that larger and more general government 
over them which is beyond it ; and from what is present, to 
collect what is likely, credible, or not incredible, will be here- 
after T * 

From all this it is apparent that Bishop Butler's 
method is really so far forth the inductive method in- 
The "Analogy" isthere. troduccd by Lord Bacon and Sir 
fore constructed upon the Isaac Newton into modcm sci- 

scientific method. ^^^^ ^j^.^ ^^ethod COnsistS for 

its first step in the accumulation of observed instances 
of similar phenomena, each instance observed adding to 
the force of the aggregate influence of all that have 
preceded it, and so on in the same method indefinitely, 
until the conviction is reached that this uniform regular- 
ity of procedure can only indicate a law of Nature, or a 
definite method of action or rule, followed by the Crea- 
tor in his arrangement of the world of matter ; and that 
this uniformly regular method of procedure, without a 
single deviation, enables us to feel perfectly sure that it 
will continue uniformly in the same direction permanent- 
ly, and therefore justifies us in predicting what the fu- 
ture phenomena of the material world will be. The de- 
termination of these regular methods of procedure or 



* Analogy," Introduction. 

f Sir John J. F. Herschel, '* Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy," 
Article 96. 



96 BISHOP BUTLER. 

rules is the first step, and in this manner the foundation 
is laid for the second and final step in induction, which 
is to ascend if possible from this collection of several reg- 
ular methods or rules of procedure to one single simple 
regular method or rule of procedure embracing and ex- 
plaining them all, and which is commonly named their 
cause. This step is generally taken by forming some 
theory suggested by the observations already made, or 
the rules already discovered, and seeking to ascertain 
by mathematical investigation, by additional observa- 
tions, or by some decisive and crucial experiment, 
whether the theory will serve to explain the observed 
phenomena and account for the previously discovered 
methods of action, rules, or laws, so called. If it does, 
then is the theory proved, a new piece of knowledge is 
gained, a fresh discovery is made of some secret in the 
constitution of the world of matter, hitherto unsus- 
pected, and a great intellectual achievement is accom- 
pHshed. Very frequently this second step in induction 
can not be taken, and it is necessary to rest content with 
the minor rules or laws already discovered ; but, when 
this higher generalization can be made, it is regarded as 
a very great triumph of the intellect of man. * This final 
step in induction was taken on a grand scale by Sir Isaac 
Newton,* when, by a process of mathematical investi- 
gation for the purpose of determining what the attrac- 
tion exerted by the earth upon the moon was, and 
whether it was what it ought to be on the supposition 

* Whewell's " History and Philosophy of th'e Inductive Sciences," *' En- 
cyclopaedia Britannica," ninth edition, article upon Sir Isaac Newton. 



ANALOGY. 

that it attracted the moon in the same proportion as it 
did masses of matter near its surface, and inversely as 
the square of the distance, he finally succeeded in veri- 
fying the theory which he had been led to form, that 
the planets were drawn toward the sun by a force 
varying inversely as the square of the distance, and 
that all the regular movements of the planetary bodies 
that had been previously observed, and their elliptical 
orbits, were due to this attraction exerted by the sun 
on the one hand, or the same attraction, commonly 
called the attraction of gravitation, which the earth 
exerts upon masses of matter near it, and on the other 
to the continued operation of a centrifugal or tangential 
force ; and thus the previously observed laws of their 
motion were resolved into the more simple and general 
law of an equilibrium established between an attractive 
force drawing them toward the sun, and a tangential 
force projecting them from it. Since his day the fur- 
ther and higher generalization has been established that 
the same law operates throughout the entire universe, 
and that each particle of matter attracts all other mat- 
ter reciprocally in the direct proportion of its mass, and 
inversely as the square of the distance. 

Sometimes this verification of a theory for explain- 
ing previously observed regular methods of procedure 
or rules of action is accomplished, not by mathematical 
investigation and demonstration combined with obser- 
vation, as in this case, but directly by actual observa- 
tion, or by ingeniously contrived experiments. 

The verification required might be supplied wholly 
7 



98 BISHOP BUTLER. 

or in part by revelation, in which case revelation would 
do the work which is ordinarily done by mathematical 
demonstration, observation, and experiment. 

In like manner Bishop Butler, by the accumulation of 
methods of procedure, or rules of action in God's spirit- 
ual government of the world around us, has adopted a 
method similar to the scientific method, in making an 
appeal to facts all bearing in a uniform direction with- 
out a single deviation, and arrived at the conviction 
that this uniformity indicates definite and settled 
methods of procedure, rules, or laws of the Creator in 
his management of the spiritual government of this 
world, which enables us to predict what his management 
of the spiritual government of the future world will 
probably be, and the conclusions thus arrived at he 
found were confirmed by the doctrines of natural relig- 
ion and the statements of Revelation. This was the 
first step in his induction. The next step was to ascend 
from these regular methods of procedure, rules or laws 
of the Creator, and these principles established by ob- 
servation, and confirmed by natural religion and by 
Revelation to a still higher generalization, principle, or 
truth lying behind them, and to formulate the theory 
that this world and the future world, the visible and 
the invisible world, coincide with each other, are gov- 
erned by the same great principles, and form, in reality, 
but one grand scheme of Providence. Of course, it 
was impossible that this theory should be verified by 
any experimental test. The verification which steps in 
and proves the truth of the theory is supplied in part 



ANALOGY. 



99 



by the observation of the constitution and course of 
Nature, and in part by the study of Revelation. 

That is to say, having formed his theory of the 
moral government of this world by induction from ob- 
servations, upon the constitution and course of Nature, 
he compared this theory with the doctrines of natural 
religion and with the statements on the same subject 
contained in Revelation, and found that they perfectly 
coincide. Then from these rules and principles thus 
inductively established, confirmed, and verified as a 
basis, he proceeded, in the next place, to make the fur- 
ther induction that the two worlds — the present and the 
future, the visible and the invisible world — are parts of 
one plan, and make up one scheme of Providence. For 
this final induction the verification was derived partly 
from observation upon this world, and partly from 
Revelation in regard to the future world ; not so 
much in the form of direct statements, but of hints, 
suggestions, remarks, single facts, scattered through 
various books and different portions of Revelation, and 
requiring very much the same kind of observation, mi- 
nute examination, careful study and comparison, as are 
required for ascertaining the facts and principles of the 
constitution and course of Nature. 

If it be thought that Sir Isaac Newton, inasmuch as 
he was working in the dark, and, as it were, exploring 
an unknown country in the search 
Bishop Butler's method f^j. verification of his theory, 

and Sir Isaac Newton's . n 

are, therefore, not alto- accomplished a higher intellectual 
gether unlike. achievement than Bishop Butler, 



lOO BISHOP BUTLER. 

who, in forming his final induction, was assisted by 
Revelation ; may it not be said, in reply, that, after 
all, the process of induction in each case was very 
much the same, and that if Newton's verification was 
the more difficult to accomplish, on the other hand, 
the original observations on which Bishop Butler's 
theory of God's government was founded may have 
been more difficult to make than were those of 
Newton, some of which, indeed, were not made by 
him, but derived from his predecessors, and that, con- 
sequently. Bishop Butler's position of superiority in 
dealing with moral subjects may be not unjustifiably 
compared with the supremely exalted position which 
Newton occupies in the universal estimation of man- 
kind in dealing with those of a strictly scientific nature ? 
Besides, may it not with truth be said that science repre- 
sents merely the best opinions of men of great intellect- 
ual superiority in regard to specific points of knowl- 
edge up to date, and may at any time be overthrown 
by the discovery of new facts, as has, indeed, not infre- 
quently happened, so that there is a certain degree of 
insecurity about the permanency of the principles of 
science, as they may be set forth and received at any 
particular time ? The facts, however, that Bishop But- 
ler's inductions depend upon, being observed facts in 
the constitution and course of Nature, are incapable of 
alteration, and therefore his basis, and the inductions 
founded upon it, are less liable to change than the basis 
and principles of any special science. This point of ad- 
vantage may possibly be overlooked. 



ANALOGY, 



lOI 



Should it, however, be asserted that the two induc- 
tions compared are not at all parallel — that Sir Isaac 
Newton, having nothing to guide him, by a process of 
induction really made a grand discovery ; but that 
Bishop Butler, being assisted by Revelation, knew the 
truth that he put forth beforehand, and therefore made 
no discovery at all — may it not be replied that this is 
not a correct statement of the case? Bishop Butler 
did not know beforehand the truth that he was in 
search of, in consequence of having the assistance of 
Revelation. Revelation merely furnished him with a 
portion of his materials, with a part of his facts ; and 
these were not in the form of positive and formal state- 
ments, authoritatively made, but had to be gathered out 
of the whole body of the various portions of Revelation 
made at different times and by different hands in the 
form of hints, suggestions, and isolated facts, by minute 
observation, examination, and comparison, very much 
in the same manner in which the simplest observations 
of science are effected. An equally necessary portion 
of his materials was furnished by his own study, exami- 
nation, and observation of the constitution and course 
of Nature. And it was by a process of induction from 
these two sets of facts (those furnished by his study of 
the constitution and course of Nature and those fur- 
nished by his study of Revelation) that, after comparison, 
he reached the great truth that this world and the 
future world form one scheme of Providence, governed 
by the same laws. The two cases, therefore, so far as 
induction is concerned, are strictly parallel. 



102 



BISHOP BUTLER. 



Bishop Butler's method is, therefore, the scientific 
method, and is similar to it, in the first place, in being 
an appeal to observation and to facts as a basis for the 
induction of rules or laws or general principles ; and 
then, in the second place, is similar to it in ascending 
from these rules or principles to the formation of a the- 
ory lying behind and above them, the verification of 
which is supplied in part by observation upon the con- 
stitution and course of Nature and in part by the study 
of Revelation, viz., that this world and the future world 
coincide with one another and form but one scheme of 
Providence, and are governed by the same laws, and 
that the former is a prelude or preparatory school of 
discipline for the latter. 

This is one reason, undoubtedly, for the great celeb- 
rity of this work, its wide-spread influence, and the 
powerful hold that it has had over 
This explains its wide- ^^oughtful men, viz., that it is based 

spread influence and the 

strong hold it has always upon an appeal to facts and to prin- 
had over thoughtful men; -^Qs obtained from facts by a se- 

viz., that it appeals to 

facts, and is constructed vcrc proccss of induction— that is, 
upon the scientific meth- ^p^^ an appeal to facts and princi- 

od, 

pies that have been ascertained to 
be true by the same rigorous method that is employed 
in determining the truths of science. 

But it is to be observed that the facts here referred 
to are not the historic facts, supported by the testimony 
of eye-witnesses, that constitute the positive evidences of 
the truth and the divine origin of Christianity. These facts 
are facts of history, constituting a class by themselves. 



ANALOGY, 103 

and sustained by personal testimony. The facts that 
the " Analogy " deals with are the facts in the constitution 
and course of Nature that tend to confirm these positive 
historic facts made known to us by the testimony of 
eye-witnesses, on which our holy religion depends, and 
of which its doctrines consist. That which constitutes 
the chief aim of the " Analogy " is to place the constitution 
and course of Nature upon a basis of fact. The great 
question, " What is the constitution and course of Na- 
ture under which we are now living ? " — for this is the 
basis on which the whole argument of the " Analogy " is 
built up — is sought to be determined by the observation 
of facts and inductions from these facts, and is, there- 
fore, attempted to be placed upon the same foundation, 
and made just as sure and certain, as the best-established 
truths of science. The constitution and course of Na- 
ture, having thus been determined to be something 
which is absolutely sure and thoroughly reliable, and to 
be placed upon an impregnable foundation, with this 
exactly ascertained foundation, the doctrines of natural 
and revealed religion are carefully compared, and their 
principles are found to be identical — that is, natural and 
revealed religion are compared with something which 
has been proved by observation to be absolutely true, 
and to be placed upon a scientific basis, and they are 
found to be identical in principle with it. Having been 
compared with something that is known and acknowl- 
edged by all mankind to be absolutely true, and found 
to agree with it in their essential principles, they must 
also, if the argument from analogy is worth anything 



BISHOP BUTLER, 



at all, and, just so far as it is worth anything, be propor- 
tionably true themselves, and come in like manner to 
repose upon a similar permanent basis. If, instead of 
doing this, natural and revealed religion had been com- 
pared with some system based only upon hypothesis 
and conjecture, and an analogy shown to exist between 
them, this analogy could only have led to a conjectural 
and hypothetical conclusion, and would have had no 
value whatever in eliciting and establishing truth. But 
the comparison, having been made with a system, proved 
to be absolutely true and certain by observation and ex- 
perience, and, therefore, to be sure and reliable, accord- 
ing to the best-established methods of modern science ; 
if a complete analogy of principle be established, it is an 
analogy which must lead, if it leads to anything, to a sure 
and reliable conclusion, possessing a basis of solid truth. 
The complete and total difference between the two meth- 
ods is very apparent. This is what Bishop Butler means 
when he says : " Let us, then, instead of that idle and not 
very innocent employment of forming imaginary models 
of a world, and schemes of governing it, turn our thoughts 
to what we experience, to be the conduct of Nature with 
respect to intelligent creatures, which may be resolved 
into general laws or rules of administration in the same 
way as many of the laws of Nature respecting inanimate 
matter may be collected from experiments. And let us 
compare the known constitution and course of things with 
what is said to be the moral system of Nature T 



* " Analogy," Introduction. 



ANALOGY, 105 

That is, the analogies sought to be established are 
analogies between the doctrines of the Faith and the facts 
of life open to the observation of all men, and they are not 
analogies obtained by comparison with mere opinions or 
hypotheses or theories ; and thus the truths of natural 
and revealed religion are confirmed and strengthened 
by a support resting upon a firm and impregnable basis, 
instead of a shifting and changeable one — the only foun- 
dation that can be satisfactory to a serious and earnest 
mind. If a comparison is to be made between religion 
— natural and revealed — and the constitution and course 
of Nature, it is necessary to know what the constitution 
and course of Nature really are — that is, we must have 
a clear understanding of the actual state of things in the 
midst of which we are living, and of the circumstances 
in which we are placed. Now, in what way can this 
knowledge of the constitution and course of Nature be 
obtained ? Bishop Butler insists that it can only be ob- 
tained by the study of the great facts of life — that is, by 
observation and by experience, and by rigorous induc- 
tions from these observations. In this way he proves 
that the doctrines of natural and revealed religion are 
more likely to be true than not. In seeking a founda- 
tion for his comparison and analogy, he rejects hypo- 
thetical and imaginary suppositions, and goes back until 
he reaches a foundation admitted to be reliable by all 
mankind, viz., one which is the result of their own ob- 
servation and experience. He shows that the doctrines 
of natural and revealed religion involve principles which 
are not opinions, or theories, or conjectures, or lofty 



io6 



BISHOP BUTLER. 



imaginations, but simply observed facts that are actually 
in operation before our eyes and absolutely true. He 
goes back, therefore, until he reaches a substantial basis 
of fact, and then, this basis having been secured, revers- 
ing the process, he takes a forward step, and points out 
that, from the principles involved in the constitution 
and course of Nature, certain doctrines of natural and 
revealed religion may be anticipated, and by induction 
the truth inferred and established that the visible and 
invisible world make up one uniform scheme of Provi- 
dence, the former being preparatory to the latter, and 
both demanding the same moral virtues and religious 
graces as qualifications for happiness. 

Now, religious philosophers have not always pur- 
sued this course. Take Descartes for an instance. In 



Religious philosophers ^0™!"? UOtionS of the COnsti- 



have not always pursued tution and coursc of Nature, or of 



he did, by assuming certain hypothetical conditions, 
and reasoning from them to various logical conclusions, 
without any reliable or sure foundation for the princi- 
ples with which we have started ; but this would be 
forming only a hypothetical and imaginary world, and 
would really give us no correct and reliable informa- 
tion in regard to the circumstances in which we are 
placed and the government under which we are living, 
and could lead only to hypothetical and conjectural 
conclusions. It would be an error similar to that of 
the old natural philosophers, who invented all sorts of 



this course — Descartes, 
for example. 



this world in which we live, we 
might undertake to determine it as 



ANALOGY. 



10 J 



causes, and imagined all sorts of principles, to account 
for the material phenomena which they observed around 
them. There would, therefore, be no firm basis upon 
which the desired analogy could rest. Modern science 
has swept away all these conjectural methods, and in- 
sisted that no principles and no laws should be asserted 
or proclaimed to be true, except those that are founded 
upon a rigorous induction from most carefully observed 
and thoroughly tested and exactly determined facts. 
And it is the application of this principle in the most 
rigorous manner, in the prosecution of physical re- 
search, which has led to the collection and arrange- 
ment of the vast amount of knowledge that we now 
possess in regard to every part of the world of matter. 

It was reserved for Bishop Butler to be the first to 
apply this same principle to the study of the moral con- 
stitution of the world, and by in- 

Bishop Butler the first to 

apply the scientific meth- duction from Special instances of 
od to theology. The carefully observed phenomena, to 

"Analogy" is really a . i • • i i • u 

grand inductive argu- "sc to the general pnuciplcs which 
ment for proving that the control them and undcr the go V- 

present state and the fu- , c ^ • y i . i 

ture state together make emmcnt of whlch WC llVC, tO the 

up one scheme of Provi- exclusion of imaginary hypotheses 
barren of all fruit, and giving us no 
certain knowledge of man's true condition as a moral 
and religious being. He was, therefore, the first to con- 
struct, based upon the observation of facts, a correct 
plan of the constitution and course of Nature, under 
which men are actually living in this world, and from 
this by induction to form the theory, the verification of 



io8 



BISHOP BUTLER, 



which is in part supplied by observation and in part by 
Revelation that the constitution and course of God's 
moral government of the future world is similar to that 
of the present world, and that they together make up 
one uniform, harmonious, and consecutive plan, differ- 
ing from each other only in this respect, that the one 
is visible, the other invisible. " That this little scene of 
human life in which we are so busily engaged has a 
reference of some sort or other to a much larger plan of 
things."* . . . ''That the course of things which comes 
within our view is connected with something past, pres- 
ent, and future beyond it, so that we are placed, as one 
may speak, in the middle of a scheme, not a fixed but 
a progressive one, every way incomprehensible in a 
manner equally with respect to what has been, what 
now is, and what shall be hereafter." f . . . ''That the in- 
visible world and invisible dispensations of Providence 
may be analogous to what appears, and that both to- 
gether make up one uniform scheme, the two parts of 
which — the part which we see and that which is beyond 
our observation — are analogous to each other, and it is 
highly probable the first is formed and comes in mainly 
in subserviency to the other." That the natural 

and revealed dispensations of things are both from God, 
coincide with each other, and together make up one 
scheme of Providence." * This is the great induction 
inferred, and this the great truth underlying the whole 



* " Analogy," Part II, chap. vii. 
\ "Analogy," Part I, chap. iii. 



\ " Analog)'," Part I, conclusion. 
* " Analogy," Part II, chap. iii. 



ANALOGY, 109 

argument of the " Analogy," viz., that the present state 
and the future state are virtually one, and are governed 
by the same principles, and that the virtues, moral hab- 
its, and spiritual graces, which are formed by the dis- 
cipline of life in the former, and which are required for 
passing successfully through it in a course of godly 
living, are the same with the virtues, moral habits, and 
spiritual graces which are required for godly and happy 
living in the other ; that what we are here, that we are 
to be hereafter; the virtues the same in kind, but in- 
tensified and carried to a higher degree of perfection. 

For this reason it was that, when the celebrated Dr. 
Chalmers was asked to inscribe some original remark in 
a Greek Testament which had be- 

Dr. Chalmers's remark on 

this point ; the similarity lougcd tO Bishop Butlcr, he wrotC 

between Bishop Butler thus : " Butler is in thcology what 

and Lord Bacon. , . . . . 

Bacon is m science. The reigning 
principle of the latter (Bacon) is, that it is not for man 
to theorize on the works of God ; and of the former 
(Butler), that it is not for man to theorize on the 
ways of God. Both deferred alike to the certainty 
of experience as being paramount to all the plausi- 
bilities of hypothesis ; and he who attentively studies 
the writings of these great men, will find a marvel- 
ous concurrence of principles between a sound phi- 
losophy and a sound faith." * The meaning of this 
remark, that Butler is in theology what Bacon is in sci- 
ence, is simply this : That both these great philosophers 



* Bartlett's " Memoirs of Bishop Butler," p. 336. 



no 



BISHOP BUTLER. 



called men's minds to the consideration of facts as the 
basis of truth, and insisted that these should be pre- 
ferred in place of hypothesis and theory. For instance, 
are we or are we not under a moral government carried 
on by the great Creator of all things ? Bishop Butler 
would demand that this question should be answered 
by an appeal to the facts of our present existence. Are 
we, in fact, under such a government now? He has, 
therefore, in this work introduced into theology and 
morals a philosophical principle of investigation similar 
to that which Lord Bacon introduced into physics, viz., 
that observation and experience are to be preferred to 
hypothesis and conjecture in the investigation of truth. 
In an age like the present, this peculiar characteristic 
gives to Bishop Butler's work very great additional 
influence.* 

Undoubtedly this was in part the design of Bishop 
Butler in writing the "Analogy," and one object that 
Bishop Butler's design he had distinctly in view, viz., to 
undoubtedly was to find confirm the doctrincs of natural 

a scientific basis for the 

confirmation of religious and revealed religion by compar- 
truth. He was led to j^g them with something that pos- 

this by the profound in- 
fluence produced upon scssed the samc certamty as the 
men's minds by the dis- truths of scicncc. The circum- 

coveries of Sir Isaac New- ^ , ^, . i . i • , , 

ton, and the revolution StauCCS of the period m whlch he 

these effected in opin- lived would naturally lead to and, 

ion as to the method of f^^^ ^^^^^^ ^ 
searching after truth. ' ^ 

This influence traced out. tempt. 



* Bishop Butler has pursued the same method in his three famous sermons 
on Human Nature. 



ANALOGY, 



III 



Sir Isaac Newton's great work, the Principia," * 
published in 1687, had almost immediately been gener- 
ally received, and had produced a profound impression 
upon the intellectual world. It was the first successful 
application upon a grand scale of the principles laid 
down by Lord Bacon, ''the first great example of a 
wide and complex assemblage of phenomena indubita- 
bly traced to their single simple cause ; in short, the 
first example of the formation of a perfect inductive 
science,! . . . the greatest scientific discovery ever 
made " ; X and for this reason, as well as for the won- 
derful flood of light which it threw upon celestial phe- 
nomena and the whole theory of the material universe, 
it at once arrested the attention of mankind. More par- 
ticularly in England, where this great work w^as pub- 
lished, and in the University of Cambridge, and upon 
its leading institution, Trinity College, in the Gateway 
Tower of which it was written, the impression was 
most profound and lasting. Says Dr. Whewell, one of 
the late masters of Trinity College, in his " History of 
the Inductive Sciences '* : " There appears to be a popu- 
lar persuasion that great discoveries are usually re- 
ceived with a prejudiced and contentious opposition, 
and the authors of them neglected or persecuted. The 
reverse of this was certainly the case in England with 
regard to the discoveries of Newton. Halley, Wren, 
and all the leading members of the Royal Society ap- 



* " Philosophiee Naturalis Principia Mathematica." 

f Whewell's " History of the Inductive Sciences," first edition, vol. ii, 
p. 127. \ Ibid., p. 152. 



112 



BISHOP BUTLER. 



pear to have embraced the system immediately and 
zealously. Men whose pursuits had lain rather in lit- 
erature than in science, and who had not the knowl- 
edge and habits of mind which the strict study of the 
system required, adopted, on the credit of their mathe- 
matical friends, the highest estimation of the * Princi- 
pia,* and a strong regard for its author, such as Evelyn, 
Locke, and Pepys. Only five years after its publication 
the principles of the work were referred to from the 
pulpit as so incontestably proved that they might be 
made the basis of a theological argument. This was 
done by Dr. Bentley, the Master of Trinity College, 
Cambridge, when he preached the Boyle lectures in 
London, 1692."* 

Most of these men were, indeed, Cambridge men, 
but the impression made upon the intellectual life of 
Oxford was no less profound, for 

The influence of the . , 11/^ 

"Principia" wasnotcon- Lockc and Evclyn wcrc both Ox- 
fined to Cambridge. It ford men. As early even as 1691 

extended also to Oxford. ^ .1 o m- t-» r c 

Gregory, the Savilian Professor of 
Astronomy at Oxford, publicly taught the Newtonian 
theory, and was followed by Halley and Keill in 1703 
and 1704. By 1710 the first edition of the " Principia" 
had become exhausted, and copies were rare. The 
publication of a second edition was urged upon New- 
ton by Dr. Bentley, and this was accordingly done 
under the direction of one of Newton's most distin- 
guished disciples, Roger Cotes, in 171 3. 



* Whewell's " History of the Inductive Sciences," first edition, vol. ii, 
p. 190. 



ANALOGY. 



All this took place not long before Butler was en- 
tered at Oriel College, March 17, 17 14. He must have 
found the atmosphere at Oxford thoroughly impreg- 
nated with these great discoveries. The impression 
produced upon the universities was communicated to 
the world of literature. It was not only felt immedi- 
ately throughout England, but it continued to be felt. 
An immense impetus was everywhere given to the 
study of the phenomena of the material world. Dr. 
Samuel Clarke, the predecessor of Bishop Butler in 
the world of philosophy and theology, and one of his 
most respected friends, and the combatant with whom 
he had his first tilt at arms in the intellectual arena,* 
became a devoted adherent of the new philosophy, and 
openly advocated it in print. Men now believed that 
at last they had discovered the unerring method for 
the ascertainment of truth, the key wherewith they 
could unlock the mysteries of Nature, and arrive at 
imperishable and absolute knowledge as distinguished 
from mere opinion. 

These great discoveries from their novelty, and the 
future prospect of still more wonderful discoveries 
which they held out, stirred men's minds much more 
then than the same great doctrines do now. They were 
the prominent subjects of thought among all educated 
persons, and were openly discussed in every society. 
This was the intellectual atmosphere into which Butler 
was introduced at Oxford, and by which he was sur- 



8 



* Vide p. 15, ajite. 



114 



BISHOP BUTLER. 



rounded. It was impossible that he should not be 
profoundly influenced by it. It opened up to him 
a new and grander view of the constitution of Na- 
ture, and caused him to see it in a more impressive 
aspect. 

Traces of the influence of this atmosphere upon him 
may be detected throughout the " Analogy," and in one 
^ r ^. . ^ place in particular the new discov- 

1 races of this influence ^ ^ ^ 

may be detected in the cries are plainly alluded to in the 
"Analogy." celebrated passage in the third chap- 

ter of the first part, in which he traces the tendency 
of virtue to prevail in the invisible world throughout the 
universe, so that good men can not but recommend 
themselves to the favor and protection of all virtuous 
beings throughout the universe — meaning, by this, dis- 
tant scenes and periods and other worlds ; and then 
goes on to say, " If our notions of the plan of Provi- 
dence were enlarged in any sort proportionable to what 
late discoveries have enlarged our views of the material 
world, representations of this kind would not appear 
absurd or extravagant." * From this passage it would 
appear that his enlarged views in regard to God's 
spiritual world, its extent and wide range, and its possi- 
bilities, were suggested by the vast expansion in men's 
views that had recently been made in reference to the 
extent of the material universe. Other allusions of the 
same kind are scattered everywhere throughout the 
whole fabric of the " Analogy " (see especially Part II, 

* "Analogy," Part I, chap, iii ; Part II, chaps, iii and iv. 



ANALOGY. 115 

Chapter IV, section 3, where reference is particularly 
made to gravitation). There can be no question, then, 
in regard to the fact of his thorough acquaintance with 
this recent extraordinary advance in scientific method 
and knowledge, or in regard to the influence which 
these had upon him. It is also extremely probable 
that he was in direct communication with Cambridge 
even as early as his university life at Oxford, and very 
likely had his attention drawn to that university by its 
freer intellectual life at that time, and by the improved 
method that had been introduced there for the investi- 
gation of scientific truth. This is easily accounted for 
by his intimacy with Dr. Clarke, who was a Cambridge 
man, and, as we have seen, a devoted disciple of New- 
ton. In a letter to him, dated September 30, 171 7, he 
speaks of his intention to remove from Oxford to Cam- 
bridge, and asks Dr. Clarke to recommend him a tutor 
there. He also expresses his disgust with Oxford meth- 
ods : " We are obliged to misspend so much time here 
in attending frivolous lectures and unintelligible disputa- 
tions that I am quite tired out with such a disagreeable 
way of trifling, so that, if I can not be excused from 
these things at Cambridge, I shall only just keep one 
term there." * And that from the bent of his mind he 
must have been keenly alive to every improvement in 
the methods of investigating truth is quite evident from 
one of his early letters to Dr. Clarke, dated at the 
Tewkesbury Academy, in which he speaks of the 



* '* European Magazine," January, 1802, p. 9. 



Il6 BISHOP BUTLER, 

search after truth as the business of his life." * And, 
again, soon after his entrance at Oriel, he expresses in 
another letter his regret that he had been compelled to 
quit those studies which had a direct tendency to di- 
vinity, because, he says, " There is very little encourage- 
ment nowadays for any one to enter that profession who 
has not got a way of commanding his assent to received 
opinions without examination." f From this it is evident 
that, in " the search after truth," the careful examination 
of received opinions was in his eyes a matter of the 
utmost importance. At this time it would seem that 
his attention had been diverted from the study of di- 
vinity to that of law, for we know that his object in 
going to Cambridge was to take a degree in law there 
after having secured the degree of Bachelor of Arts at 
Oxford, and that his father had given his consent to 
this course.:]: All these circumstances would tend very 
powerfully to bring him under the influence of the 
new method for investigating scientific truth that had 
been introduced at Cambridge. Lord Bacon, it must 
be remembered, was a Trinity College-Cambridge man, 
as well as Sir Isaac Newton and Sir Christopher Wren. 
The last twenty years of Sir Isaac Newton's life — from 
1707 to 1727 — were spent in London. From 171 8 to 
1726 Bishop Butler was a resident of the same city. 
They both belonged to the same social circle, were 



* His fourth letter to Dr. Clarke : " I design the search after truth as the 
business of my life." 

f Steere's " Remains of Bishop Butler," p. 12. 
X Ibid., p. 17. 



ANALOGY. 



117 



often present at court, and were both highly valued 
and treated with distinguished consideration by Queen 
Caroline, the wife of George II, and in this manner 
Bishop Butler may have been brought under Newton's 
personal influence.* 

At any rate, it is quite evident that in this manner 
the method of observation and the study of facts as a 
basis for the induction of princi- 

The wide influence of the 111 ^1 n 

scientific method led to pl^s had come to be generally es- 
a change of method in tablished in the public mind as the 
philosophy and theology , method for the discoverv of 

and probably suggested 

to Bishop Butler the truth, as opposcd to all mcthods of 
peculiar method of the speculation and conjecture, and the 

"Analogy." 

deductions drawn from hypotheti- 
cal principles. Philosophy and theology were, there- 
fore, at once placed at a great disadvantage, being 
popularly supposed not to possess this only sure basis 
for ascertaining truth. In philosophy Locke sought 
to overcome this disadvantage by constructing a sys- 
tem based upon the observations made by the senses 
and reflection upon these observations and upon the 
mental phenomena observed by consciousness. There 
can be no doubt that Bishop Butler, unconsciously 
perhaps, aimed at the same end. He says himself, in 
the introduction to the " Analogy," in the passage 
already quoted : " Let us, then, instead of that idle 
and not very innocent employment of forming imagi- 
nary models of a world, and schemes of governing it. 



* Vide a remark by Butler concerning Sir Isaac Newton, p. 26, ante. 



ii8 



BISHOP BUTLER. 



turn our thoughts to what we experience to be the con- 
duct of Nature with respect to intelligent creatures, 
which may be resolved into general laws or rules of 
administration in the same way as many of the laws of 
Nature respecting inanimate matter may be collected from 
experiments. And let us compare the known constitu- 
tion and course of things with what is said to be the 
moral system of Nature — the acknowledged system of 
Providence, or that government which we find our- 
selves under, with what religion teaches us to believe 
and expect, and see whether they are not analogous 
and of a piece. And upon such a comparison it will, I 
think, be found that they are very much so j that both 
may be traced up to the same general laws and re- 
solved into the same principles of divine conduct." * 
That is, he desired to place, as far as it was possible 
from the nature of the subject, the doctrines of natural 
and revealed religion upon the same sure basis of truth 
as the phenomena of the material world " as collected 
from experiments," by comparing them with something 
that had been ascertained to be true by the application 
of the inductive method, and proving their complete 
agreement, and to show that the natural and revealed 
dispensations of things are both from God, coincide 
with each other, and together make up one scheme of 
Providence." f In this way he hoped to gain once 
more for theology and revealed religion the ear of edu- 
cated England. Nor was he disappointed of his end. 



* " Analogy," Introduction. 



f " Analogy," Part II, chap. iii. 



ANALOGY. 



1X9 



Ever since the " Analogy " was published has it ar- 
rested the attention of the intellectual part of mankind 
and compelled their assent, and, through them, im- 
pressed and governed in reality, though perhaps un- 
consciously, the Christian world. Constructed upon 
the same plan, and by a mind of at least equal acute- 
ness, comprehensiveness, and power, it can no more 
be overthrown than can Newton's system of the uni- 
verse, and he who should be rash enough to undertake 
it would only dash himself to pieces in the attempt. 

But Bishop Butler was not only a scholar, a philoso- 
pher, and a theologian, but also a man of the world. 

His opportunities for seeing life in 

Bishop Butler was a man ^ 

ofvery varied experience all its phascs were Very rcmarka- 
and great knowledge of ^1^^ Bq^u of a mercantile family 

the world. His writings 

abound with profound ^ country town, educated in part 
aphorisms, rich in wis- at a Dissenting academy, and later 

dom. - ... ^1 

at the proudest university m Chris- 
tendom ; almost immediately after graduation appointed 
to one of the most prominent positions in London, as 
preacher to the lawyers at the Chapel of the Rolls Court, 
and brought into habits of intimacy with the most intel- 
lectual men of that city for a period of eight years ; then 
transferred to an exceedingly remote parish in the north 
of England, where for seven years he lived in seclu- 
sion and tranquillity, meditating the composition of the 
" Analogy " ; then suddenly summoned back to London 
to become the chaplain of the Lord High Chancellor 
of England, and almost immediately made the private 
chaplain of the queen, and required to be in attend- 



I20 



BISHOP BUTLER. 



ance at court for two hours every evenings, where he 
met some of the brightest minds and most accomplished 
men and women of all England ; then made Bishop of 
Bristol ; he was finally transferred to the bishopric of 
Durham, one of the richest and most distinguished of 
all the sees in England, and in that capacity became 
the lord lieutenant and representative of Majesty for 
that county, a member of Parliament, and also a baron 
and peer of the realm, with a seat in the House of 
Lords, of which his friend Lord Chancellor Talbot 
was the presiding officer. In all these different posi- 
tions he was brought into close contact wdth almost 
every class in society, from the peasant in his village 
to the monarch upon his throne,* and, therefore, en- 
joyed unusual opportunities not only for seeing, but 
also for entering into human life in all its various phases 
in such a way as to have his great powers fully drawn 
out and taxed to the utmost in dealing with the practi- 
cal affairs of every day. He was, therefore, vastly more 
than a university scholar and divine. Nor was he an 
ascetic or recluse. On the contrary, he was directly 
the reverse ; he was a man of affairs and of the world, 
and possessed extraordinary advantages for the study of 
the characters of ''all sorts and conditions of men," and 
acquiring a knowledge of human nature. Miss Talbot 
speaks of him as the most delightful companion, from a 
delicacy of thinking and extreme politeness, a vast knowl- 
edge of the world, and a something peculiar to be met 

* See Byrom's description on p. 26, ante, of Bishop Butler's interview with. 
Queen Caroline and the Duke of Queensborough. 



ANALOG V. 



121 



with in nobody else."* This practical training accounts 
for much of his influence and for the extremely keen and 
forcible language in which he presented his thoughts. 
It also accounts for the large amount of worldly wis- 
dom, the many sagacious remarks, and the great num- 
ber of profound general reflections to be found on 
nearly every page of his writings, which read like 
aphorisms to be deeply graven upon every man's soul, 
and to be carefully cherished and daily recalled to re- 
membrance in the conduct of life. Of these innumer- 
able profound reflections, one of the most striking and 
important is the following, at the close of the fourth 
chapter of the first part of the Analogy " : 

We have a present interest under the goverment 
of God which we experience here upon earth. And 
this interest, as it is not forced upon us, so neither is it 
offered to our acceptance, but to our acquisition^ f 

That is to say, the various good things and great 
gifts of God, he does not force upon us, or, indeed, 
give them over into our hands for acceptance out and 
out, but he offers them to our acquisition; he places 
them within our reach, and then requires us to do some- 
thing ourselves in order to make sure of their final at- 
tainment. If we wish to secure them, we must work for 
them. This is a general principle running throughout 
God's government. This is true of all the good things of 
this life ; it is also true of the great gift of salvation. It 
is placed within our reach, but we must put forth effort 

* Bartlett's " Memoirs of Bishop Butler," pp. 231, 232, also p. 23. ante. 
f "Analogy," Part I, chap, iv. 



122 



BISHOP BUTLER. 



ourselves in order to secure it. All possible pains have, 
therefore, been taken by the Most High to prevent our 
falling into an inactive and passive state, and to compel 
us to use all our faculties with the utmost vigor up to 
the very end of life. Whether it be bodily, mental, 
moral, or religious good that we desire, in every case 
we are compelled to work for it, and to put forth effort 
in order to secure it. This is a truth that ought to be 
deeply impressed upon our minds as a great rule of life, 
and is, indeed, one of its most important facts. 

Other aphorisms of almost as much importance may 
be found upon nearly every page, involving in all cases 
profound principles of the greatest value, and full of 
wise counsel applicable to the affairs of daily life. He 
says in one place : " Things and actions are what they 
are, and the consequences of them will be what they 
will be ; why, then, should we wish to be deceived ? " * 
And again, " For, after all, that which is true must be 
admitted, though it should show us the shortness of 
our faculties." f 

The famous remark, But to us probability is the 
very guide of life," has become almost a household 
phrase, and inwrought into our daily speech. 

It is, therefore, not solely on account of its prepar- 
ing the way for the reception of the positive evidence 



The study of the " Anal- 
ogy " important for intel- 
lectual training. 



for the truth and the divine origin 
of the doctrines of natural and re- 
vealed religion that the " Analogy " 



* "Analogy," Introduction, 
f " Analogy," Part II, chap. iii. 



ANALOGY. 



123 



has been assigned a prominent place in the curriculum 
of a liberal education in some of the most celebrated uni- 
versities and colleges at home and abroad, and has 
come to be considered as a study of the highest impor- 
tance. It is also because of the maxims of profound 
wisdom in reference to the conduct of life, with which 
its pages are enriched ; because of the severe intel- 
lectual training and discipline imparted by the diligent 
study of its arguments ; because of its introduction 
into moral and religious subjects of the great scientific 
principle of the inductive philosophy, and, therefore, 
as tending to place the doctrines of natural and re- 
vealed religion, in addition to their proper, rational, and 
historical evidence, upon an equally firm foundation 
with the best established truths of science. It is for 
these academic reasons (no less than for the masterly 
survey which it gives of the constitution and course of 
Nature under which we are living ; the insight that it 
affords into what is now going on around us, and into 
the true position of man as living under a moral gov- 
ernment, and accountable for his life to his Creator, and 
the subject of reward and of punishment, and the light 
which it throws upon man's position as a religious 
being) that it is generally regarded as standing at the 
head and summit of the classical portion of a liberal 
education, to which the previous study of the languages, 
of rhetoric, logic, politics, and metaphysics all point as 
finding in it their true end and culmination. No one 
can rise from the study of the " Analogy," and feel that 
he is exactly the same moral and intellectual being he 



124 



BISHOP BUTLER. 



was before. It opens up to the conscience many addi- 
tional responsibilities, and invests life with a higher 
dignity and grandeur. The difference intellectually 
between one who is thoroughly instructed in its reason- 
ings and one who is ignorant of them is so very great 
that it is almost impossible to express it— the one is so 
much superior in the scale of being to the other. It has 
probably been more extensively read than any other 
uninspired book ever written upon the subject of re- 
ligion, unless it be Thomas a Kempis s " Imitation of 
Christ," and it is upon men of the highest intellect that 
its effect has been the most profound. It has, there- 
fore, had great influence in shaping and in giving tone 
to the thought of the civilized world, and exerted a 
power very much out of proportion to the number 
simply of those who have read it. Like the Holy 
Scriptures, it keeps its place at the right hand of the 
scholar and the man of thought as his inseparable com- 
panion. Once read, it is read again and again for per- 
ennial refreshment as long as life lasts. 

Is it not desirable, then, that all liberally educated 
persons should seek to become familiar with a book of 
^ , . such celebrity, and be anxious to join that 

Conclusion. ^ 

mighty host of noble men and profound 
thinkers who have worshiped at this shrine ; who have 
been taught to see very clearly from the study of its 
pages (for this is, after all, the great argument of the 
" Analogy ") that the life of Paradise and of Heaven can 
not be essentially different in principle from the life of 
this world, being parts of one uniform scheme, except in 



ANALOGY. 125 

the removal of the temptations arising from the body, 
from Satan, and wicked men, and from the pomps and 
vanities of earth, on the one hand, and, on the other, in 
closer relations to Christ, to the Father, and to the Holy 
Spirit; the more distinct and conscious participation, 
without sacramental media, in the mighty and glorious 
intercessory service of the great High Priest of the hu- 
man family in the Holy of Holies of ''the true taber- 
nacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man," * and in 
the full realization of the joys involved in the commun- 
ion of saints, and of the mysteries and the glories of the 
Kingdom of Heaven ; but, being a social life, must re- 
quire the exercise of the same virtues and mental and 
moral habits which the discipline of this life tends to 
form, viz., self-control, patience, forbearance, truth, res- 
ignation, and humility, and must demand constant cir- 
cumspection, caution, regard for the rights and feelings 
of olhers,t and also the same religious graces, faith, 
love, trust, and obedience directed toward our Lord 
Jesus Christ with prayer for his aid and guidance — 
virtues and graces, the same in kind but intensified and 
carried to a higher degree of perfection, in the light 
and peace enjoyed by " just men made perfect after 
they are delivered from their earthly prisons " ? J 

In other words, what men have been taught to see is 
that the future life is but the continuation of that spirit- 
ual life which each man has adopted for himself on 
earth only transfigured and glorified ; that the virtues 



* Hebrews viii, 2. % Visitation of the sick. 

f "Analogy," Part I, chap. v. sec. 4, quoted p. 92. 



126 



BISHOP BUTLER. 



and graces required there must have been learned and 
habitually practiced here ; that our present life shadows 
forth and predicts our future ; that, if we are to worship 
there, we must previously have formed habits of wor- 
ship here ; that, if we are to pray there, we must have 
learned to be instant in prayer here ; that we can infer 
what our prominent characteristics will be there from 
observing what the predominant characteristics of our 
lives are here ; that, as our tendencies are here, so will 
our actualities be there ; that, if we love God there, we 
must first have loved him here ; that, our faith in our 
Lord Jesus Christ and dependence upon the Holy Spirit 
there must first have been formed here ; that the two 
worlds, the present and the future, the visible and in- 
visible world, are in truth parts of one plan, make up 
one scheme of Providence, and are governed by the 
same laws, and that the former is a state of preparation 
and a school of discipline for the latter. These are the 
great truths with which we close our examination of 
the " Analogy," and for which we commend it to study 
and to admiration : 

"... What if earth 
Be but the shadow of heaven, and things therein 
Each to other like, more than on earth is thought.?^" 



I N D 



E X. 



"Analogy," the, extends the meaning 
of the term " natural," and limits the 
meaning of the term " supernatu- 
ral," 6 ; its position in the curric- 
ulum of a liberal education, 13, 
123 ; the principal work of Bishop 
Butler, 13, 35 ; definition of the term 
analogy, 36 ; misapprehension of> 
and true meaning of, the title, 36 ; 
the title embraces five points, 37 ; 
one of the most important features 
of the book is its determination of 
the constitution and course of Na- 
ture, 39 ; its design twofold, to prove 
that the doctrines of natural and 
revealed religion are more likely to 
be true than not, and to remove 
objections to them, 40 ; not intend- 
ed to prove the truth of natural or 
revealed religion, but to confirm 
them by analogies drawn from the 
constitution and course of Nature, 
their proper proof being supposed 
to be known, 41 ; Butler was led 
to write the book by the infidelity 
of the eighteenth century, 44 ; his- 
tory of the previous period, 45-48 ; 
a new method for discussing the- 
ological questions demanded, 47 ; 
the " Analogy " was written upon 
the new method, and for the pur- 



pose of showing that the doctrines 
of natural and revealed religion are 
thoroughly reasonable and in com- 
plete accordance with the constitu- 
tion and course of Nature, 49 ; the 
force of the argument depends upon 
the closeness of the analogy estab- 
lished, 52 ; how analogy proves pos- 
sibility and probability, 53-63 ; is 
a species of induction, 95 ; testi- 
monials to its value from a long 
line of distinguished men — Lord 
Brougham, Newman, Mansel, Glad- 
stone, 64 ; expressed in forcible 
language, and the opinion of the 
London " Quarterly " upon its style, 
72 ; eloquent passages, 74 ; the 
argument cumulative, 78 ; suscep- 
tible of indefinite expansion from 
analogies furnished by modem sci- 
entific discoveries, especially in ref- 
erence to the restoration of decayed 
races, 79-82 ; a panacea for doubt, 
66 ; produces positive religious con- 
victions, 69 ; leads man to the wor- 
ship of the Mediator, 70 ; peculiar, 
in that additional instances strength- 
en the argument, while their remov- 
al does not weaken it ; if entirely 
destroyed, the positive evidence still 
remains and no damage is done, 78 ; 



128 BISHOP 

can be pushed much further than 
Bishop Butler was able to push it, 
71 ; its argument anticipatory, and 
enables one to predict what a re- 
vealed religion would probably be, 
this illustrated, 88-91 ; it is a grand 
inductive argument, 107 ; construct- 
ed upon the scientific method not 
unlike that of Sir Isaac Newton, 95, 
99, 102 ; the analogical argument 
shown to be that of St. Paul (i Cor. 
XV, 36), 59 ; the anticipation of some 
of the doctrines of revelation, from 
the study of the constitution and 
course of Nature, drawn out by 
Bishop Butler and defended in the 
introduction to the *' Analogy," 94, 
95 ; capable of being pushed still 
further, 89-93. 
Aphorisms scattered through Butler's 
writings, 1 2 1, 122. 

Balguy, Dr., 49. 

Barton, Rev. Philip, Butler's earliest 
instructor, 15. 

Brougham, Lord, his estimate of the 
" Analogy," 64. 

Butler, Bishop, parentage, birthplace, 
14 ; early education at Wantage and 
Tewkesbury, 14, 15 ; a commoner 
at Oriel College, Oxford ; ordina- 
tion, preacher at the Rolls Court 
Chapel, 16 ; Rector of Haughton, 
of Stanhope, chaplain to the Lord 
Chancellor, D. C. L. at Oxford, 
prebendary in Rochester Cathedral, 
published his " Fifteen Sermons " 
and the " Analogy," 17 ; private 
chaplain of Queen Caroline, 18 ; 
Bishop of Bristol, of Durham, death 
at Bath, ig ; epitaphs, 20, 21 ; in- 
terest in American episcopate, 22 ; 
Butler family, 22 ; personal charac- 



BUTLER. 

teristics, 23 ; portraits, 24 ; John 
Byrom's interview with and descrip- 
tion of him, 25-30 ; anecdotes con- 
cerning him, especially in his last 
moments, 32 ; intellectual ability 
and attainments, 33, 34 ; compared 
to Lord Bacon by Dr. Chalmers, 
109; his design in the "Analogy" 
was to find a scientific basis for the 
confirmation of religious truth, iio ; 
profoundly influenced by Sir Isaac 
Newton, 110-112 ; traces of this 
influence perceptible in the " Anal- 
ogy," 114 ; probably a personal 
friend of Newton, 117 ; in John 
Byrom's description of an interview 
with him the conversation turns 
upon Sir Isaac Newton, 26 ; Butler 
a man of varied experience and vast 
knowledge of the world, as de- 
scribed by Miss Talbot, 23, 120; 
his vigilant observation of life, his 
opportunities for seeing it very re- 
markable, a man of the world as 
well as a philosopher and theologi- 
an, 1 19-12 1 ; while at Oxford, large- 
ly under the influence of Cambridge 
men, 115, 116 ; carries on a corre- 
spondence with Dr. S. Clarke upon 
the being and attributes of God when 
he was only twenty-one, published 
his " Fifteen Sermons " when he 
was thirty-four, and the *' Analogy " 
when he was forty-four years old, 
15-17; the "Analogy" his princi- 
pal work, 35 ; his argument in ,the 
"Analogy" anticipatory, and en- 
ables one to predict what a revela- 
tion would probably be, 87-93 ; 
and, by a process of induction, to 
draw the conclusion that the pres- 
ent state and the future state to- 
gether make up one scheme of 



INDEX. 



129 



Providence, and are governed by 
the same laws, 107, 108 ; his meth- 
od similar to that of Newton's, 99, 
100 ; the first to apply the scientific 
method to theology, 107 ; always to 
be classed with Shakespeare, Bacon, 
Newton, Cuvier, and other men of 
extraordinary genius, 13. 

Butler family, account of, 22 ; its 
present representative, Rev. John 
Butler, Rector of Inkpen, Berks, 23. 

Byrom, Dr. John, his interview with 
Butler, and account of a discussion 
in which Butler, Hartley, Lloyd, 
and himself participated, touching 
the comparative merits of authority 
and reason in religious questions, 
and their mention of Sir Isaac 
Newton, 25-30. 

Carmichael, Rev. R., his edition of 
Butler's " Sermons" the best, 35. 

Caroline, Queen of George II, her 
friendship for Butler, 18 ; interview 
between her, Butler, and Duke of 
Queensborough, 25, 26. 

Chalmers's comparison of Butler and 
Bacon explained. Both defer to 
the certainty of experience, 109, 
no. 

Clarke, Dr. S., his friendship for But- 
ler, 16, 116. 

Compassion inwrought into the gov- 
ernment of God, 6, 94. 

Conclusion, the great induction set 
forth in the "Analogy" is, that the 
future life is the continuation of the 
present life, and that the latter is a 
school of training and discipline for 
the former. 

Constitution and course of Nature 
one of the most important subjects 
treated of in the " Analogy," 39 ; 
9 



and they enable one to predict, 
within certain limits, what a re- 
vealed religion would probably be, 
88, 90, 91, etc. 

Definition of natural and revealed re- 
ligion, etc., 36, 37. 

Design of the book twofold — to prove 
the probability of natural and re- 
vealed religion and to remove ob- 
jections to them, not to demonstrate 
the truth of either, 40, 41. 

Destruction of the earth, the, by fire, 
shown by analogy to be more likely 
to be true than not, 82, 83. 

Dissolution of the heavens and the 
earth, the, and the formation of a 
new earth, proved by analogy to be 
more likely to be true than not, 82. 

Eloquent passages of the " Analogy," 
74. 

Epitaph upon Bishop Butler by Dr. 
Forster, 20 ; by Robert Southey, 21. 

Fitzgerald, Bishop W., his edition of 
the "Analogy" the best, 35. 

Formation of a new heavens and a 
new earth shown by analogy to be 
more likely to be true than not, 83. 

Forster's epitaph on Butler, 20. 

Gladstone, Right Hon. W, E., his 
estimate of the " Analogy," 65. 

Hartley, Dr. David, 25, 26. 

Impetus given by Newton to the study 
of facts as the only basis for truth ; 
history of the revolution effected by 
the " Principia," and the rapid 
spread of its influence, 110-112. 

Incarnation, the, shown by analogy to 



130 BISHOP 

be more likely to be true than not, 
80, 81, 

Inductive method, the, of Bacon and 
Newton described, 95-99. The 
" Analogy " is really a grand induct- 
ive argument for proving that the 
present state and the future state 
together make up one scheme of 
Providence, 107 ; Bishop Butler's 
method and Sir Isaac Newton's 
are, therefore, not altogether unlike, 
99. 

Infidelity of the eighteenth century 
led Butler to write the " Analogy " ; 
this shown by the history of the 
period, 44-46. 

Influence of the '* Analogy " depends 
upon its appealing to facts ; its sci- 
entific method explains its influence 
over thoughtful men, 102. 

Jones, Mr., Butler's instructor in the 
academy at Tewkesbury, 15. 

London " Quarterly Review " on 
Bishop Butler's language and style, 
72. 

Mansel, Dean, his estimate of the 
" Analogy," 64. 

Misapprehension of the title of the 
" Analogy " corrected ; the title em- 
braces five distinct points, 36, 37. 

Newman, Cardinal, his estimate of 
the *' Analogy," 64. 

New method — that is, a reasonable 
method, of treating religious sub- 
jects demanded in the eighteenth 
century ; the " Analogy " written 
on this principle. Dr. Waterland 
the principal representative of this 
school, 47-49- 



BUTLER. 

Newton's influence over Butler, 114 ; 
the "Principia" indirectly led to 
the "Analogy," no. 

Objections to Bishop Butler's style 
removed, 71 ; against natural and 
revealed religion completely dis- 
posed of by the ** Analogy," 66. 

Political, philosophical, and religious 
history of the times just previous to 
the publication of the "Analogy," 

43-47. 

Portraits of Butler, 24. 

Possibility and probability proved by 
analogy, 53-63. 

Probability, its basis shown to be 
similarity to something already ac- 
knowledged to be true, 53-55. 

Probability of the doctrines of natural 
and revealed religion successively 
traced out, and they shown to be 
more likely to be true than not, 59- 
63. 

Punishment in a future life shown by 
analogy to be more likely to be true 
than not, 87. 

Queensborough, Duke of, 26. 

Redemption and regeneration of the 
human race, by the introduction 
into it of a perfectly holy man, the 
second man, and also the formation 
of a direct organic connection with 
him shown by analogy to be more 
likely to be true than not, 80, 81. 

Reintroduction of man upon the earth 
after its destruction by fire shown 
by analogy to be more likely to be 
true than not, 84, 85. 

Scientific method, the, described, and 
that of Butler shown to be similar 
to Newton's, 96-102. 



INDEX, 



Selection of good men to inhabit the 
new heavens and the new earth, or, 
in other words, a future reward for 
good men, shown by analogy to be 
more likely to be true than not, 84- 
87. 

Sherlock, Bishop, 49. 

Southey, Robert, epitaph on Butler, 21. 

Summary of the argument of the 
"Analogy," 59-63. 

Support, the, afforded by facts to nat- 
ural and revealed religion absolute- 
ly reliable, and to be preferred to 
hypothesis and conjecture, 102-109. 

Surtees's description of Butler's per- 
sonal appearance, 23. 

Talbot family, their friendship for 

Butler, 16, 17. 
Talbot, Miss, description of Butler, 23. 



Talbot, Lord Chancellor, 17. 
Tindal, author of " Christianity as old 

as the Creation " (1730), supposed 

to be the person against whom 

Butler wrote, 50. 
Tucker, Dean, anecdote in regard to 

Butler's belief in the insanity of 

communities, 32. 

Warburton, Bishop, 49. 

Waterland, Rev. Dr., one of the lead- 
ing divines of the Church of Eng- 
land in the eighteenth century, 49. 

Wayland, Rev. Dr., 35. 

^Yhateley, Archbishop, definition of 
the term analog}', 36. 

Whewell, Dr. W., 35 ; his sketch of 
the rapid spread of the Newtonian 
system, its influence at Oxford and 
in London, 111-113. 



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